Gratitude in a Pandemic

As I ironed shirts at my usual spot by the kitchen window today, Matt came out of our guest-room-turned-office and stopped to chat about our day so far on his way to get something from another room. A quick kiss, and he was off to find whatever it was, and I hit play on my podcast and got back to ironing.

Matt has been working from home since March, and while remote work is not for everyone, our entire family has thrived having Daddy home during the day. We can eat lunch together while reading a book aloud most days, play with toys outside his office door so we can say hi when he comes out for a quick break, or barge in in a panic when our neighbors see a bear in their backyard, run together to the upstairs window to see if we can catch a glimpse of it, then sit together on the couch for a few minutes while one of us (*ahem* me) bursts into tears when she realizes the bear was just on the other side of the fence while she and her babies were playing in the backyard. (I handle encounters with wildlife with such grace...)

It hit me today that while this is our daily rhythm for the foreseeable future, it won’t always be this way. This is a gift from God just for this specific season.

So today I just wanted to stop in the middle of all the hard and sad and disappointing and scary things about life in a pandemic and recognize that joy and gratitude have a place in there too. What mercy!