This Will End

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” 

Albus Dumbledore

Yes, I’m talking about the Covid-19 mess. 

There will be a day when we all go back to work and we will stop hearing about the coronavirus on the news. A day when the store shelves are fully stocked with toilet paper. A day when we won’t have to cancel any vacations or events, and life as we know it will go back to normal. 

The hard part is not knowing when this day will come… I’ve heard speculations stating it would be two weeks, a month, two months, and none of it is comforting.

What is comforting is knowing that this will end. 

Although this whole situation is f*cked, I have an opportunity to acknowledge all of the blessings in my life. 

• A job that I love and co-workers that I miss.
• Family and friends who check-in.
• Technology that allows me to work from home.
• A new apartment that makes the adjustment to working from home a tiny bit easier.

I live alone, and I’ve come to realize that I will not have much face-to-face interaction with anyone for the time being. Even as an introvert, this feels uneasy. 

Right now, the world is very dark. People are getting sick and a small percentage of those people are dying. Work situations are changing. Weddings, graduations, classes, and study abroad programs are canceled. Some people are more impacted than others, and my thoughts go out to everyone.

I’d argue that most of this mess is out of our control. Yes, I very strongly believe everyone in the United States should participate in social distancing so we can stop the spread of Covid-19 as soon as possible. However, besides social distancing, washing hands, and not touching our faces, there’s not much else we can do. We have to surrender to the unknown. 

While we don’t have much control over the disease itself, we have the power to turn on little lights in this dark time. For me, my little lights are:

Take some time to think about the little lights you can ignite and the ways you can spread it to others during this period of separation.