Olivia Newport COVID masks

My home-made masks

Well, it’s a weird time, and we are all trying to make our way.

In my day job, I’m a remote employee, so you might think not much has changed under stay-at-home orders. The truth is it’s often hard to concentrate, and I miss the simple structures that gave some framework to my days–getting out to classes at the gym, scooting down the street to Wednesday night adult class or Thursday night choir practice at church, running over to the library to pick up the latest book I’d put on hold and see what else was going on, not thinking twice about whether an errand was essential.

I’m grateful for my home, that everyone in my family is well, that I can still walk around my neighborhood and take deep breaths when I make that left turn at the top of the hill that gives me the view of the mountains and regain a sense of external permanence in a world that feels fragile at the moment.

We are not alone. God is with us. This marvelous musical reminder of just these words came my way a couple weeks ago, and frankly I basically have it on loop now. I play it first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and in between in the moments when I am tempted to obsess with the day’s COVID-19 news. It thrums in the background of my mind, and that’s a good thing. I recommend it.

And in these days when anxiety swirls, I also come back to words of blessing I created for the books in my Tree of Life series. (Sometimes a writer’s words circle right back to her own moments of needs.) They seem relevant right now, so I offer them to you as well.

May you always find nourishment for your body at the table.

May sustenance for your spirit rise and fill you with each dawn.

And may life always feed you with the light of joy along the way.

P.S. If you want to know more about the Tree of Life series, go here. Book 3, When I Meet You, releases May 1.