Dense Fog

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What are the different types of fog? - Met Office

A few weeks ago, I went out for a run on a particularly foggy day.  It pretty much mirrored my emotions.  I had this feeling that there is this giant cloud called Covid-19 hanging over all of us, and we don’t yet know when the fog will lift.  It could be a long time.

I long for news that is non-pandemic related.  I look for diversions or distractions, and yet at the end of the day the cloud is still there.  I still see the images of mass graves in NYC.  I’m concerned for all our health care workers, first responders, grocers, delivery drivers and more who don’t have the option to stay Safer At Home. 

Then I feel incredibly odd when taking the rare trip to the grocery store… with the masks, and space marks on the floors, and plexiglass shields between me and the cashier.  I mentally understand, and really am thankful for all the precautions. But emotionally, I hate feeling so walled off, and I don’t like having to cautiously interact with people as if everyone is a “potential carrier.”

And mostly I grieve for all the people struggling for breath, and dying without their most beloved by their side.  This is hard stuff.

I just wish the fog would lift.  Yet none of us, not even the experts, can quite pinpoint when that will be.  And maybe that is the hardest part… living with the uncertainty.  I guess uncertainty is always a part of life… but now it seems like it is a much BIGGER part of life!

It’s at times like these that I fall back on that oft-quoted prayer by Anne Lamott.  For when we don’t quite know what to say, or what to do, or how to pray… we can simply say “Help!  Or Thanks.  Or Wow!”  And trust that it is enough.

Some days most of my prayers are Help!  Help!  Help!

Then there are blessed moments – when I experience or witness the kindness and care of friends and family and strangers – and there is no better word to say than “Thanks!”  Thanks because even in the midst of such a dense fog, there are still rays of light and goodness.

The thing to remember about fog, the thing that I am trying to remember, is that the fog always lifts.  Later in the day after my “foggy run”… well, it turned out to be a glorious and sunny afternoon!

We’d all like the fog to lift sooner rather than later.  But ultimately that is not in our hands.  We do have the power to slow the spread, but we don’t have magic wands to just make it all go away (don’t we wish!)

So while we wait for the fog to lift, while we wait for the virus to run its course, while we wait for treatments and vaccines and relief…

Keep on praying Help. Thanks. Wow.  I will too. 

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