This microscopic virus is kicking our asses. As I was driving to work yesterday, listening to NPR, the financial report came on. Apparently the dip and then rise in the stock market over the past few days, along with the climbing inflation rate, is being tied to the discovery of yet another variant of Covid-19. We are now on variant five of the Greek alphabet soup that distinguishes one deadly form of this virus from another. Ironically (so much irony these days) the school I work at lifted the mask mandate for outdoor activities beginning this week. I wonder how long I get to see those full faces when I cover fifth grade lunch duty before the masks go back up.
When I ponder the existence of God, I picture them with a head shake at our crazy humanity or a devilish sense of humor. I don't know which it is but we are certainly stewing in our own hubris these days. The world is like a big dysfunctional family squabbling about who gets what and who gets more, and hoarding the limited supplies of all that can be gotten. The big brother steals from the little sister then hits her on the head and the parents are too busy in their narcissism to do the right thing. And then...this little tiny virus comes along to show us all who is boss. You tell me ~ is God amused or aghast?
And yet we go on as if. And thank God we do. If there is one blessing this pandemic has given us (and keeps on giving us!) is the gift of humility. As a species we are so terrible at that virtue, and since we haven't been able to figure it out on our own, along comes the tiniest of life forms to remind us. There but for the grace of God...
Omicron has come at just the right time ~ the season of gratitude and of giving. I went Christmas shopping at Union Market in D.C. with Hilary this past week-end just days after she hosted us for Thanksgiving. We had a gloriously beautiful day for late November in the mid-Atlantic. We ate lunch outside with our coats on and with the sun warming our unmasked faces. We shopped in little independent pop-up stores and browsed the premier independent bookstore in D.C. where the best of the nation's politicians shop and read aloud. We FaceTimed Tala who played peek-a-boo with us 350 miles away by moving her face in and out of the camera giggling every time. I just felt so lucky and so grateful to be alive and close to my family. I had just read about Omicron the day before and thought "here we go again". But here I am grateful everyday to wake up in a warm bed surrounded by love and so much possibility. That teeny, tiny destructive life form reminding me of how delicate it all is, how mindful I should be of every spectacular and mundane moment.
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Yesterday marks the one year anniversary of getting in the car and dragging that trailer across country to our new lives. It has been a very hard year. It has also been an amazing year. I have now lived through all four seasons in Northern Virginia and they have mirrored the aggregate experience of this first year. Some days the wind is so strong that the wind chill makes it painful to go outside. Some days the colors of the foliage and the flowers are so brilliant that it would be painful to stay inside. Two mornings ago there was a light snow ~ so light that the moment it touched down it was gone. I stood outside knowing I would now be late for work taking in the quiet beauty of tiny snowflakes floating in the air like the lightest feathers. I found myself breathing in that cold, fresh air that comes with a still winter Virginia day, mask off, my lungs taking in all the possibility.
I feel so grateful for all of you.