I’m sure everyone agrees that the news these days is simply not good, and that is putting it mildly. All of us have spent over the past 2 years navigating the pandemic. For me, it was the constant worry of keeping my assisted living residents and close family from getting sick. When COVID first happened, I would spend my evenings scouring the internet trying to secure face masks that were in short supply. I spent many a night worrying if I did enough with my vaccine clinics. Did I get enough people to participate? Then, it was on to why can’t I get COVID testing results faster? I kept asking myself what more I could be doing to keep everyone safe.
Now as cases are going down and COVID mandates are being lifted, a new concern has emerged. Russia has invaded Ukraine. We all knew it was going to happen as Russian forces were being massed near the border for weeks. However, when the invasion was announced, it became real. The TV newscasts are full of families being displaced as they deal with a terror that I will never fully understand.
Social Media is full of what-if scenarios, What if this is just the tip of the iceberg on Russian aggression? What if things escalate to an all-out nuclear war? What if the stock market crashes? What if the banks close? What if… What if….
It is easy to get caught up in the “what could happen scenarios”. Yes, what is going on is beyond serious. It is quite frankly alarming. I’m not going to tell you that everything will be all right. Truthfully, I do not know what the future holds.
I do know that tomorrow is promised to no one. Anxiety and worry always pay me a visit when I start to think about the future. It is easy to invite them in and let them take me down that spiral staircase of impending doom. I sometimes succumb to those dark thoughts of what would happen if I lost all of my money, or my home, or something horrific happened to my family.
I cannot give advice on what to do to ease the tension that I am sure everyone feels. I can only share how I manage to cope in these uncertain times.
I am going to ask myself a question each new morning, What can I do today to make a small dent in making the world around me a better place? To me, it is more than being grateful, which I certainly am. It’s more than telling my family how much they mean to me. It’s about creating a purpose for each day. I want everyone I come into contact with to feel encouraged and valued.
It is not going to stop the never-ending problems of the world. However, it will help me feel that I have a small part in sharing hope and encouraging others.
Go ahead, tell that Amazon guy that rings your doorbell that he is appreciated and doing a good job.
It will snowball from there.
