We moved our clocks back an hour this morning. It was a reset. It requires recalibration for our internal clocks. For some folks it takes a couple of weeks to adjust. And when March rolls around, we will have to adjust again. We are used to this regular time change, although many find it annoying.
The pandemic world also requires us to recalibrate. We keep hoping that we can switch back to normal, but infection numbers only seem to get worse. It looks like all our efforts from mid-March have not worked. It looks like we are stuck in this new time indefinitely.
The changes of Daylight Saving Time happen overnight. The changes of the pandemic keep coming. As each new season of normal life arrives, the steam roller of COVID flattens them. In some cases, the virus stops events cold: Easter gatherings, the ACC tournament, live worship services. We had a social-distanced Halloween yesterday. Thanksgiving will not be the same without a real parade, and many families will not be able to gather. Christmas traditions will have to adjust: parties, shopping, parades, dinners.
COVID flattens everything in its path. It crushes businesses, weddings, traditions, sports, hospitals It infects people and puts them out of work, taking lives and forcing quarantines. Soon we will have a whole year in the age of quarantine, and we will know more what to expect.
But the COVID steam roller does not have to crush us.
What are you rethinking? How are you adapting? How can you become better as you find new ways to do life?
No longer can we thoughtlessly go through the motions. Nearly every routine has to change. Let's consider what really matters and why.
Don't let COVID flatten you. Let it squeeze out the shallow parts of life and release you to live on purpose.
