Pen-demic

  You know those warrior princesses that are both strong and beautiful? With long sweeping dark hair and powers to right things that are wrong in the world? My best friend Rehab is one of them. Her power isn’t flying, although she drives as if she can. It isn’t the use of a signature weapon, although she wields tools that serve her well in battles. She has special powers to save people in the ER. She’s a warrior, battling each day for life.   With her husband deployed to the Middle East weeks before our own country went into lockdown and just now recently returned, Rey has been on the battlefield back home, donning whatever PPE is available, and waging war with an unseen virus attacking her friends and neighbors. After daily combat, the princess returns home to parent two toddlers, praying each day that their own superheroes will continue to care for them while she fights on the front lines. She even shielded her children when the opponent attacked her and brought the battlegr...

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever, Amen.   The Lord's Prayer. The final sentence of the Lord's Prayer acknowledges that power belongs to God more than it belongs to the one who prays to God. It is power that we have a problem relinquishing, and power that we consider our right as free people. It is power that complicates every human relationship, and power that makes us reckless to the point of death. If we think that power is a right, rather than "an endowment" (Declaration of Independence), we endanger more lives than our own. The Coronavirus has seized power from people around the globe. There is no need to claim it is a God-sent pandemic, but it certainly is a test of our ability to yield power by curtailing our social activity. In the United States and Brazil we are flunking this test, because we consider ourselves free and invulnerable people. We do not understand that power is provisional. We must be ready to yield it at...

Credit: CDC/Science Photo Library Wondering where my life will take me, Swept away, without the usual control Weak. Spiritless. Untethered. Just seeing the unlovely. Feeling alone and wishing that Life wouldn’t seem so daunting It’s a sadness I can’t explain How it started I do not know Lonely, yet among people, Sad, yet having all I need. Unloved, yet told otherwise; but Not broken Not unhopeful Not crazy Just melancholy. Sharon Cardwell After 4 months of the pandemic, Covid

Like a knight going to battle, Each piece to protect me from the enemy, Each piece to equip me for the fight. Teeth in. Hearing aids in. Glasses on. Bandage on knee. Mask on. I am ready for my day. I am ready for life. Photo by  Artur Tumasjan  on  Unsplash

Archie Bunker  :  The Lord God created me in his image. Michael 'Meathead' Stivic  :  You mean God looks like you? Archie Bunker  :  I ain't sayin' you couldn't tell the two of us apart. Archie Bunker  :  Every picture I've seen of God, he's white. Henry Jefferson  :  Well, maybe you were looking at the negative! [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0509934/characters/nm0005279] Politicians need to have more respect for their Bibles.  They are more than  tools of the trade. The theological discourse of Ohio State Representative Nino Vitale (below) brings to mind Archie Bunker's theology, quoted above.  The belief that humankind was created in the image of God was invoked by the legislator to defend his not wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He posted on Facebook: This is not the entire world. This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles...

Watching the children next door      chasing their new puppy around the yard every day. Memes on facebook:      “ . . .here I am laying on the couch, being a hero”. A wave from the Rich and Charlie's delivery man       as I pick up dinner on the door step. Leisurely reading a library book         with no due date in sight. Loved ones thinking of us        with unexpected notes and treats in the mail. Saying “YES” to a chocolate chip cookie        on my Panera delivery order. A snake, guitar strumming, snapchat faces:       Zooming with teen-age grandchildren. Video collage of of church members       waving anything green on Palm Sunday Processional. Calling the shut-ins and hearing Martin’s excitement      that his grandson would play football with Tampa Bay. Rachel’s banner  on the front ...

By Doris Martin You would think that I have plenty of time to do so much now that I am staying home and staying safe. “Seniors” (I still can’t wrap my head around that term as if it didn’t pertain to me) are supposed to be careful with this monster looming outside our windows. So, I’d better get down to business! First of all, I now should have time to finish the book I’m writing about my Swedish grandparents. Actually, plenty of time to get it printed for my family by Christmas. I thought the days would go slowly for me but it’s quite the opposite. It seems now that as soon as I finish breakfast, instead of starting to write the 1,000 words a day suggested by many authors, I am thinking about what I can make for lunch and then dinner. We were used to eating very healthy meals making fresh fish three times a week with chicken or pork tenderloin on the other two nights and “whatever” on the seventh night. Now, since my daughter is busy working from home, she insists on doin...

SARS. COVID-19. Vivianna’s life right now is bookended by these deadly diseases. 2003 was the year she joined our family. 2020 is her senior year in high school. Both events should be happy ones, filled with preparation and celebration. Yet, doubt and lack of control clouded her adoption process and now overshadows her senior year. In the spring of 2003 John and I anxiously awaited news of the baby in China who would be our daughter. We had waited a year and were expecting to be “next in line” to get the paperwork telling us we were “matched” with a baby girl. I wrote daily in a journal about our wait and throughout March and April the worry about SARS in China dominated my thoughts. I held off writing about SARS because I prayed it would soon go away. On April 25, 2003, I wrote about my fears. “This is supposed to be a time of joyous anticipation and excitement for us, but it has become clouded by uncertainty and fear. Please let us be able to travel to get our daughter!” The...

It’s called “the new normal”. Life as we knew it has changed. We don’t know how long this will last. It may keep coming on in waves until we get a vaccine for it or something to eradicate it if it is contracted. The Covid-19 corona virus has hit and we are now in the midst of it. I heard we haven’t even peaked yet, but that may come in two weeks. People have been laid off in droves, all trips cancelled, no social gatherings allowed. We are told to wear masks and gloves if we have to go out, especially to shop for groceries. Distancing of 6 feet between people is being asked, as well as only to go out if absolutely necessary as for prescriptions and food. Most retail stores that don’t have these are closed. It is really hurting the small business owners. Restaurants are open for take-out only. Some people are afraid of this and subsequently most restaurants are barely hanging on. Rob and I moved to Chesterfield on March 10th, two days before this was called a pandemic. We were...

My skin is warm from the sun's glare through my car window. The temperature is rising, dare I say, it's hot? The air will feel good rushing through my hair, making it dance as I drive down the highway. Hesitation. What else will an open window invite besides the wind? I try to relax. Reason that all will be well and yet, the question lingers. To find relief being part of the sun and wind or close up where isolation may keep me safe, but without a filled spirit. -Nikki Douglas Photo by  Makenna Entrikin  on  Unsplash

by Judy Richardson April 7, 2020 I am blessed but life is NOT the same. I want to attend Choir practice, attend St Mark, serve Communion, attend our book club meetings, attend Deacon meetings, attend Rachel Circle, go to Writers Life, potluck dinners, walk with friends, hug my daughter and her family. And I can’t do any of these things. Just because of a little microscopic organism which has hitchhiked its way around the whole world. Pandemic. We are learning. On-line buying is about the only way we can buy goods that aren’t groceries . If I want restaurant food, I have to order online or call the order in and pick it up. Mostly it is a little cold by the time I get it home. Ugh! I have decided to discontinue physical therapy for my shoulder. It is necessary for me to be in physical contact with my therapist and I am not the only one using the equipment. I will also not be seeing my chiropractor this week. Should I stay home? Maybe, maybe not, but I am most concerned about a ...

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 Pandemonium and the World Photo by  Justin Main  on  Unsplash It’s 4 am and I can’t sleep, my mind swirls around the pandemonium that is going on with the  COVID 19 virus.  At the same time, I feel “insulated” in my “safe little world”. I shop for groceries every 2-3 months at the Scott Air Force Base Commissary. Having gone about a month ago, I am in no fear of running out of staples. My husband, Mike, is recently retired and no longer takes the long trek from the Forest Park MetroLink station to Scott twice a day.  As a Realtor, while some things (like showing homes) has to be done in person, a lot of what I do can be safely done from my home office, like negotiating contracts and building inspections which can be done via phone calls, texts, emails and electronic signatures,  I know I am among the fortunate ones. While I’m in the over 65 age bracket that is deemed more vulnerable, Mike and I are in reasonab...

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 The secular view of Easter Sunday is  families dressing up and looking good in church. The spiritual view is God’s  vindication and resurrection of a guiltless man who suffered at the hands of angry mobs, politicians, and even his own friends. Before Easter we remember our complicity in the Crucifixion, and following this realization, our redemption and freedom in the Resurrection. If we consider Easter Sunday merely a target day for reducing social distancing, the significance of Jesus’ persecution and sacrifice is lost.  If we think of Lent as the countdown to re-employment, we have turned God’s most dramatic intervention in human history into a celebration for the Stock Market on Easter Monday. We have already lost the “Christmas season” to commercial interests, because the sales leading up to Christmas have become the most important theme of Advent. Waiting for the coming of Christ does not get much play in the media. Easter shoul...