Little Easters …

Today is Easter, the most important day in Christianity.
And even if you are not a believer, the day is significant for its message of rebirth, which is relevant to all of us as humans. But that message is not specific to just Easter Sunday – – life should be a series of little Easters, as we challenge ourselves to continue growing every day of our lives.

With that as backdrop, it makes today the perfect day to start this commentary (don’t like the term blog – sounds too much like something that happens the morning after a hard night out), which will be an infrequent observation on past and current events, and the occasional shiny object that distracts me. And it may remind the 2 or 3 people who read my annual Christmas letter of that experience.

TheseareunprecedentedtimesAnabundanceofcautionWewillgetthroughthistogetherWevebeenthroughworseCanIhaveoneofthoseloavesofbread – -thought I would knock out all the key phrases of the pandemic and get it over with. But the plus side of C19 is that at its core it is a golden opportunity for rebirth, reset – whatever you term it. The pause button has been pressed, and while that is a chance for binging TV, eating the same lunch everyday, and using your underwear to remember what day it is, it is also the chance for “New Reality Resolutions” – – how will I behave differently post pandemic? But I really don’t want to go there, because were I a social media participant, there would likely be a flood of those thoughts being thought.

So, my invitation is to put “Little Easters” in the back of your memory bank and retrieve it after this has passed and things are back to “normal”, whatever that may be. And act on it in two ways:

1. Make it about others. Remember what it is that freaks us out about C19: Not necessarily our own health/mortality – though that is scary if we choose to think about it – but the health/mortality of our family and friends. And continuing doing what we are doing now, by reaching out to family and friends, and connecting with them. And telling them that we love them. If you’ve ever faced losing a loved one (we’ve had our own family experience, which is a subject for later) then you know how important that is – learning it after losing a loved one is too late. In the immortal words of Mike Royko “If there’s someone you love and you haven’t said it for a while, say it now. Always say it now.”
2. Make it personal. One of my favorite rock song lines is “Its my gradual descent into a life I never meant”, which may describe a lot of our situations. Never resist the opportunity to make a change, no matter how small.

It is never too late. Never too late to connect with family – or reconnect. And never too late to connect with yourself and figure out what’s next.

Whats next for Beers at the Nifty is the occasional post – maybe every couple of days as my brain enables.