Have you recorded it?

Every now and again we need to look back on what has transpired in a sincere reflection.

We can learn much from hindsight – both the good things and the bad things. Things we could have changed; things we should have changed; things we had no control over.

For the things we could have changed – we can’t go back and change them, but we should have these in our arsenal in the event we are once again forced to walk down an uncomfortable path. Things we should have changed – again, we didn’t, but this should teach us that a lack of courage, determination and action will bring consequences. Things we had no control over. These are things we need to realize are given to adjust our attitudes. It shows us how we reacted and could our reaction been different.

I can remember writing this five years ago. When I get done reflecting, I am planning on doing some adjusting, altering and planning!

“News of the coronavirus and it’s continued strains have been dark at best and with all the adverse reporting coming in, it was refreshing this week to be able to add encouraging sentiments from the people that were interviewed all over the county.

From the ones who have lost jobs to the ones who are scrambling to create financial opportunities for the small-business owners, there is an immutable spirit that has risen to the surface. A spirit of hope. A word of encouragement. Living faith that has caused everyone in our communities to pull together and do something to help somebody.

During the pandemic, the school provided free lunches and this last summer, every child under the age of 18 eats free. People that have been laid off and don’t have two nickels to rub together are offering words of encouragement and volunteer service to the elderly.

A common thread that has illuminated through each story of hardship. From each tale of the battle. In every decimated corner of our community. It is the gratefulness to be a part of a small community.

A community where you know your neighbors and everything each one is going through. A place where we celebrate together in the abundance of good times and cry with one another in the darkened shadows of pandemic.

Would this be a weekend storm, people would have banded together to mop up and clean up, but in the current state of affairs, the uncertainty and the path that has never been navigated has people concerned and fear wants to control every heart.

It wears on the human spirit like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Every news outlet spews forth more statistics and coverage of the coronavirus, and to mask or not to mas has put all other news on a back burner. Nobody knows when it will end. We wake up in the morning and it’s there. We place our heads on the pillow at night and it’s still screaming loudly at the top of its lungs to be afraid.

We all are hoping that it will end soon so things can get back to normal. But will it ever be normal again. Perhaps a new normal. And as we watch this disease march out as quickly as it came in, we’ve got to ask ourselves what we learned. What new weaponry have we developed so that if it comes back again, will we be ready?”

And when we look back on it, what will be the reflection of the world? What will they say about the way we handled it? What will history record as to how we weathered the storm?

I would hope that they would record us as a community that never gave up hope. Never got too tired to help an elderly person to the grocery store. Never gave into the things that would anesthetize our flesh. Never wanted to get out.

We will be known as a community that rolled up its sleeves, took courage against the fear that so easily boasted itself against us, and marched on to the heartbeat of a small-town. We never gave up.

Let’s hope THAT is what they say and what they publish in a county that so deserves the praise and encouragement right now.”

Light has been shed on the past five years. On the lies. On the exaggerations. On the accusations and on the courses of actions.

We can never again take lightly something as devastating as that period of time. We can never take at face value things we should have researched and things people told us.

Our loved ones died alone because we were told that we couldn’t visit. We missed out on family vacations, social interactions and even little things like hugging a graduate and watching their ceremony via ZOOM.

It would be easy now living in the hindsight to say “shame on you,” or “fool me once shame on you but fool me twice, shame on me.” Life is a series of learning experiences. If we don’t learn from history, then the old clique is right – we are likely to repeat the mistakes and misjudgments of the past, leading to similar negative consequences and hindering progress.

I challenge you to review your events of the past five years. Be like a Ralph Waldo Emerson or Henry David Thoreau or Beatrix Potter or Albert Einstein. Across all human profession and passion – they kept journals. They reviewed what they had written so that it would not be forgotten and so that they would never walk in the same quicksand twice. They would be less likely to duplicate their mistakes. They would set boundaries and safe harbors. They would be able to build on the growth of understanding.

Five years from now, you should never be the same. You should never look the same. You should never feel the same. Wisdom comes from experience and the exercising of that wisdom will bring a difference in your own heart and life.