Enjoy the small things
The following passage was written by Texas Children’s Chaplain Pam Krinock.
How can something so tiny cause so much upheaval? Even though I intellectually understand how microscopic organisms can cause major disruption in the functioning of our bodies, the question remains more than rhetorical and continues to baffle me at some level.
Tired of feeling powerless against this tiny critter floating unseen in the air around me, I decided to volunteer for a vaccine trial. I filled out an online questionnaire, went through a telephone interview and last week I went to the research site. There along with me were people of all ages and diverse background. It was a microcosm of Houston. Each of us spent several hours going through the process in our separate exam rooms and then, 30 minutes after receiving either the placebo or the real thing, we went home. Although I did not have the opportunity to speak with any of the other participants, I felt united in a common cause. It outweighed my concerns about side effects.
Then there are the seemingly insignificant conversations that are part of each day. Offhandedly, my 10-year-old granddaughter noted that the oil boom, the cattle boom and the baby boom all caused a big flurry of activity. So why has the COVID-19 boom brought the world to a stop? No school, no normal schedules, no going to the store … even to her it seems ironic.
I (and probably all of us) have been longing for moments when things go smoothly, circumstances align and not every decision feels unbearably heavy. Should the kids go to school or attend online? Is it too risky to visit a frail loved one I haven’t seen for so long? The constant tug between neglecting one thing in order to promote another wears me down sometimes. The only moment of deep peace I had last week was a few minutes of floating in the water and looking up at the moon with Jupiter and Saturn visible nearby. And there it was — my longing fulfilled at an unexpected moment. I felt weightless and free. The planets were aligned, just as predicted. I only have to pay attention, to notice and savor these moments to know all is well with the world.
Kate, my granddaughter, continued her musing. “Well, that little tiny coronavirus, has done one big good thing. It’s made me realize that I want things like going to sleepovers and trampoline parks, but I don’t need them to be happy.” Amen! That’s progress. It has indeed rocketed us all out of complacency and caused us to deal with the tension between our own self-interest and the common good.
While I’ll probably continue to feel some heaviness about life during this pandemic, hopefully I will also notice the meaningful conversations, the joys of carrying heavy emotional loads together and the support I am freely given by so many others. These are the moments when everything is aligned, I feel unburdened and free and I know, deep down, that all shall be well.