Conditions

Conditions.

Favorable or unfavorable.

These factors become the difference between confidence and the feeling of being out of control.

Well acquainted with its quirks and the way it drives, my car and I have driven many miles.

Sunshine, warm days and open roads.

Driving is both liberating and enjoyable and not merely just a means to an end.

Snow, ice, wind and darkness.
Driving is stressful, at moments terrifying.
And the car that once felt very familiar now feels unfamiliar.

Weightlessness upon a surface that was once clear, its boundaries no longer visible.

Once familiar, now obscured. 

Sunlight that once gave foresight, is replaced by headlights that give fragments of visibility as you move forward in the descending darkness.

You know your destination.

But the journey towards home is difficult, uncertain, long and slow.

You cannot guarantee that you will arrive without incident.
You only know, that you have to take deep controlled breath, after deep controlled breath.
To learn to trust that you are not alone.

Because you cannot change the conditions of the journey.
You can only control your reactions and responses towards it.
You can only do the best you can, with what you have been given.

So you do what you can to keep your heart from living in fear.
You open your eyes.
And take it moment by precious moment.
And find comfort in the knowledge that all seasons change: moving from one into another, in a beautiful rhythmic song.

In these uncertain times let us not loose heart.

Let us take a deep controlled breath, after deep controlled breath. 

Let us remember the privilege it is to breathe without problem.

Let us not forget the reason for our sudden pause.

Let us remember those fighting to take that very breath you just did, with ease and without thought.

Let us act in kindness and wisdom. 

To do what we can to help support and enable those caring for the sick. to do their job well.

Let us not simply love in words, but let us love in our choices: to stay home when asked, to give where there may be need. 

Our current conditions may not be favorable.

Our hearts may be tempted by fear.

There are many facing great difficulties, loss and pain.

And for them my heart is truly heavy. 

And it is my hope that in these times we can all live a better story that will shine: in the way we care for one another in such a time as this.

"We live in a world where bad stories are told, stories that teach us life doesn't mean anything and that humanity has no great purpose. It's a good calling, then, to speak a better story. How brightly a better story shines. How easily the world looks to it in wonder. How grateful we are to hear these stories, and how happy it makes us to repeat them."  -Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years:What I Learned while Editing My Life

                          (Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash)