The Race Continues...

I have talked about finish lines a lot in the 18 months of this blog. Most recently, Billy Mills crossing the line as an Olympic champion and Weini Kelati in the race to become a U.S. Citizen.

There was also a piece in February 2021 about the pandemic as a race, one where the finish line wasn’t quite clear.

Skip to the present.

We felt we had just about finished the race.

We could almost reach out and touch the finish line tape.

We could smell and taste the sweetness of being done.

Masks started to gather dust, lonely and forgotten.

In May and June, I remember referring to the pandemic in the past tense a few times. I always caught myself, but at the same time it did seem that it was more and more acceptable to do so. All signs pointed toward a receding virus as life opened back to normalcy.

Like a well-written play, delta emerges from stage left, disrupting the stillness as the crowd (us!) gasps in horror.

Let’s sit with this for a moment.

It is hard to be so close to the finish and then have the race extended. I don’t hear people acknowledging this. Instead, I hear anger, fear, exhaustion, and people struggling. Myself included.

By recognizing how hard it is to feel that the finish is so close and then have the race extended indefinitely we can begin to accept it. We can then move to processing it. And once processed, we can begin to heal and move forward.

Putting on my doctor hat:

The patient: all of us.

The diagnosis: "3rd Wave Distress Syndrome"

The prescription:

 Recognize, process, and accept the challenge this 3^rd COVID wave presents

        Get away from looking for the finish line in these months ahead.

                Each day, do our part to keep COVID from winning.

                        Breathe deep and give thanks for the day’s gifts.

                                Keep moving.