The last few weeks have been a disruption for us all. Some have called it “The Great Pause of 2020.” Others, there has been no pause, it has been a high-speed chase to do their jobs, continue to care for their families, now at home ALL OF THE TIME, and somehow process all that is happening. For the healthcare workers, the public safety personnel, the educators transitioning to remote learning, the parents doing their best to do school at home for the first time, the grocery workers, and on, and on, and on, there hasn’t been a pause. For those in situations of that high-speed chase, it seems more like “The Great Disruption of 2020.” I hear you, I see you, and I am you.

Today I was looking through the glass back door of my house into my back yard. I have three dogs and this door is used frequently by the entire family. To say the door was filthy would be an understatement (I am not overly type A about keeping the windows clean). I did scrounge up the window cleaner, grabbed the paper towel roll, and went to work. What I noticed as I cleaned is that the top of the glass pane had very little dirt. However, as I worked my way down to the bottom, the paper towel became filthy.

I started thinking about the conversations I have had with friends lately. The many posts I have read. The social media posts that have been reassuring to me. In every situation, those individuals that encouraged me, helped me to see through the confusion, and work through sadness or feeling lost, I was encouraged. They helped me to symbolically lift my chin.

There is much right now that if you are looking down or comparing our own truth to someone else’s can make you seem less than. You may feel like the bottom of the glass full of dirt that can not let the light in and causes you to become downcast. Even more so it can cause you to isolate and let our own worst thoughts pull you under. However, if we look up and look through the top of the glass free of dirt and clear to let the light in we can begin to see out, and see beyond to the beauty that God wants us to see.

I do not make light that we still look down. We still become overwhelmed by our own “dirty bottom of the glass .” However, we have been given one another. Reach out to the team of your choosing and chant to one another “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!” God made us for fellowship so that we look up, look through the clear clean glass, and are filled with His light!

I also want to leave with this. You can have two opposite feelings within yourself. Recently a post was shared on a Teacher Group page that encouraged me. I was really struggling with can I have conflicting feelings about what is going on, can I have hope, while still feeling out of control? Can I feel like I am confident my work is doing great things for others while feeling my parenting and quality time with my children is lacking? What I decided is, YES. I am sharing the image from the post that was shared with my group in case there are others that it can help.

I am thankful for those in my team who have helped me lift my chin, look up through the clear glass and see the light. I hope that you have the same. If you don’t think you have a team, please reach out. If not to me through the comments, to someone in your circle of co-workers, relatives, or acquaintances. In this time most of us are acutely aware of how we need each other and are more than willing to support others.