This is a picture of a patient grandfather doing pandemic childcare.
There are so many patient parents and caregivers out there today. Parents are forced to work from home, or take the risk of going out to work and bringing the virus back with them. Children are feeling the pressure of staying at home, and staying away from friends and beloved teachers. This week we learned that NJ schools will not reopen this year and that is a loss for many.
How can anyone be patient enough for all this?
How is it that we are strong enough to survive?
The poet Alice Walker reminds us that we do what we need to do with grace because of those who have gone before us. She says:
To acknowledge our ancestors means
we are aware that we did not make ourselves,
that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps to God; or to Gods.
We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget:
that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love, die.
The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of
the pain, the sorrows, is always a measure of what has gone before
.
