The Simple Truth – Pandemic Gratitude

The Simple Truth – Pandemic Gratitude

April 8th, 2021

April Fool’s Day came a week late, according to some, referencing the current shutdown of life’s pleasures announced yesterday. You would be hard-pressed to find someone on this planet who has not been inconvenienced by this pandemic. The financial impact will be felt for years, given the interconnectivity of individuals around the globe.

Beyond the numbers, there is the real human cost: compromised physical and mental health, chronic illness, and even death. It has been over a year now and things are still bad, unless you live in New Zealand. Politicians struggled to balance public healthcare with individual economic and personal freedoms and very few got it right.

Then there are the rich countries, and the poor countries, and the real problem of pharmaceutical nationalism. Delivering a solution to the pandemic, injectable or otherwise, is complex and pits us against them. But who is them? Aren’t we all just we?

And the anger at public health officials: polarizing and extreme. Conspiracy theories aside, who would really want to run a District Health Unit these days?

Put down the pitchforks and torches and help one another. And if you can’t help, don’t hurt.

Show some kindness and show some love. Show it to yourself, and show it to others.

Practice gratitude - pandemic gratitude. Because if you can be grateful in a pandemic, you will center your soul and find peace.

This is the simple truth.

Be grateful for life, for friends, for family, and for every breath. Bathe in the joy of the simple things; the things we all take for granted.

When you practice gratitude, you choose to walk away from the chaos and the fear and live in the present moment. It’s where you belong. It’s where we should all be.

Or we can all move to New Zealand.

…

Geoffrey Larmer is a small town civil litigation lawyer who lives on the south shore of Trout Lake in the hamlet of Corbeil with his loving partner, Angela, and their two aloof waterdogs, Juno and Emmett. He has no expertise in anything of importance. He enjoys watching human evolution with all its faults and frailties. He loves skim milk cappuccinos with cinnamon, watching action movies and reading Calvin & Hobbes.