We just returned from a week’s vacation in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever experienced.  A week in Maui gave us a brief delay in experiencing the level of panic that has encompassed the US and it was an 80 degree, sunny skies punch of Aloha and family memories that I wouldn’t change for anything.

And then we returned.  And things looked much less sunny.

Thanks to some friends who told us almost three weeks ago this was coming we were prepared with all.the.things. people are frantically buying now.  We are so thankful that even through some of our doubt of their “prepper” mentality we took heed and stocked up pre-hysteria.  It allowed us to sit somewhat worry free that we wouldn’t have to return to empty shelves of things we really needed. Bottom line…If you don’t have some friends who watch for pandemics then go find you some…today.

We did start dealing with things for our business while we were still there because when you’re a small business owner you take that business and the thought of your employees with you wherever you go.  We made sure our offices were prepared for patients and checked up on our disinfection protocols.  All the list-checking was happening.

Fast forward to today, back on the mainland, I woke up late.  Hawaii 5 hour time difference obviously had taken effect. I was flustered and thinking of the many things I needed to accomplish to get ready for work re-entry tomorrow and all that it will bring with the latest news.  I was angry I had overslept and lost a couple of valuable hours to work.  Right about then my husband came upstairs carrying his iPad and I could hear our church streaming on it.  Our church, like all of the others, cancelled in-person services and went to online church.  We had decided last night to watch it together this morning.  Our pastor, Jim Preisig, can deliver a sermon that can calm or inspire me, week after week.  I knew we needed to hear from him today.

But…all the things to do.  Remember them?  All the distractions.  All the catch up work.  All the time lost asleep.  My brain kicked into overdrive. I have 3 kids at home and 40 some at work.  I mama-bear worry about the work ones almost as much as the home ones.  My anxiety starts talking to me…

“How will I keep them safe?  How will I keep their loved ones safe?  Some of them have new babies.  Some of them have elderly living with them. Do I have enough of all of things we need to keep them healthy? How will I keep the offices going and be able to pay them if this gets bad? HOW.BAD.IS.THIS.GOING.TO.GET?” 

My first inclination when I looked at Jason was to change course, claim that I would watch it later, put off 20 tiny minutes of my attention to begin to deal with the distractions. Jason sat down next to me with the live stream and still I was distracted with some texts and emails.  I was just getting ready to tell him I’d catch it later when I was overwhelmed with a memory from our vacation.

In Hawaii, Jason and I got up early…remember 5-hour time difference leads to EARRRLLYYY wake ups.  We’d walk this path in front of our hotel.  It was busy–everyone was up early.  One day I noted that I was spending my time watching everyone on the path, darting out of their way, watching who was coming in front of us and wishing there was less traffic on the somewhat narrow walkway. Here was our straight ahead view…

Pretty, right?  It was pretty but again, the beauty of it wasn’t what I was concentrating on. It was the problems of it.

But here’s the REAL KICKER.

If I just shifted my view a TINY BIT to the right I could have been seeing THIS….

If that doesn’t make you stop and take a breath then I don’t know what will.  Each time I looked at it I was overwhelmed with God’s presence.  With his overwhelming show-off talent. Look what He made for us!

And all I had to do was just look a little bit differently.  My friend Jolene wrote a heartfelt post about the same thing earlier this week.  I’m a slower learner.  https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjolene.f.conway%2Fposts%2F10158287634213793&width=500” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Click here to read her post.

So this morning, when that memory hit me, I stopped getting up to take care of all the tasks. I sat next to my husband and listened to my pastor and received the same peace that the view of the ocean had given me earlier this week.

I hope this thing fizzles out and we all look back and laugh at how crazy the world went. I hope we all have canned goods for days in our cupboards that we end up donating at next years food drive in our kid’s school.  But above all, I hope we look around and see more than just what bothers or stresses us, I hope we see the beauty.

Wherever you get your peace…your churches, your nature, your people…I hope you take time to receive it.

There is beauty lurking in this thing, my friends.  I just know there is. 

Health to us all,

Suzy