Thankful in the pandemic.

This week has really challenged me in keeping my grateful thoughts flowing. We’ve been challenged by the pandemic in so many ways, and when it forces us to break plans with our family members for the holidays, emotions run pretty high, and finding some emotional “thankfulness” in all of this has not been easy, that’s for sure.

But I know that no matter what we are trying to accomplish in our life, daily gratefulness, even in the face of crummy situations, is so important to keep our energy in the right place and keep us moving forward to our goals. So I took a few moments this morning to be thankful for the pandemic and pray about my frustrated thoughts and feelings.

What came to mind is the trip to Utah that I took with my hubby, Brian, and our kids in June. At the time, I was still working in my full-time corporate job and so was Brian. And BECAUSE of the pandemic, we were both working at home. We felt incredibly lucky and grateful to have jobs that we could still do from home, as we saw so many friends and family members lose their jobs during the pandemic. But, up to that time, we both struggled with getting enough time-off in our corporate jobs and no extra time to take the trips we dreamed about as most of our time-off went to traveling halfway across the country to visit our families for the holidays and summer gatherings. We didn’t feel like we could sacrifice time with extended family to take trips for just the 4 of us.

Then came June 2020 and we were both working from home and the kids were finished with school for the summer. It dawned on us that we could work from anywhere! So we quickly threw ourselves into devising a plan to visit Lake Mead, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Park City. We found safe places to stay that we would have good WiFi to work during the week, and we explored, hiked, camped and played on the weekends in some of the most beautiful places on earth! We were gone for 3 weeks! It was the trip of my dreams, something I always thought I would do but never seemed to be able to find the time for it before.

For me, there was some awakening in this story that I am thankful for, and that may not have been possible for me had the pandemic not happened. Life isn’t always balanced and rarely is it fair, but there is absolutely always something to be thankful for. And that is what I choose to focus my thoughts and feelings on today. AMEN!