COVID 19: The Untold Story- The Blessings I Learned

COVID 19:  The Untold Story

For the past almost two years the media has been broadcasting how bad COVID 19 had been in the world, the United States, and my community.  For many months people in my area did all sorts of things to prepare.  We limited our Church Services, we went to virtual schools, and did not go out shopping but at limited times.  We did not go out to eat, we did not go to the movies, and we watched how we acted when we went back to our teaching positions.   With all of this in mind last Wednesday came as a real shock to me. 

I was in the middle of class when I got word that my wife had just tested positive for COVID 19.  She was going to need a ride home from work.  Several days before, I had what I thought was a seasonal sinus infection. I woke up the Friday before with red eyes and a running nose.  This was something I would get every November so I never thought any more about it. My wife told me to get a rapid COVID Test so I went to get one.

Within thirty minutes, it had come back that I too was positive.  We were sent home from school and had to stay in insolation for the next ten days.  Sort of amazing.  You come to work fine and the next thing you know you are sick.  

COVID could not have struck at a worse time.  I was coaching my District Moot Court Team and the competition was on that Saturday.  I coached practices via zoom and had some lovely parents take my place on that Saturday.  In the back of my mind I wondered, why did this happen now.  Then I begin to think about two things. 

First, COVID is something that should be taken seriously and something that we can help others with besides wearing masks, maybe we should check on the people who have COVID and see how we can help them.  It would mean a great deal to the people who are ill.  COVID takes you out of curriculation.  You become a person non grata- a non person.  You never exist.  Therefore, when you help others who are ill this really helps out the community.  I know how important it is because I never would have been able to make it without the wonderful help of many concerned parents and students.  They helped because they could, they helped because they should, and they helped because I believe the Holy Spirit prompted them to do so.  God places people in our life to help us, I know God placed these people in my life to do this right then and there. 

Second, when I was told I had COVID I was in denial.  I think it must be a great deal like when we find out that we left this earth. We find it hard to believe because we think we are so important here on earth.  My first words after finding out, oh no, not now of all times.  I thought, wow after two years I contacted this right before my District and Thanksgiving.  Then I started to think, wow that was the wrong thing to think.  This was not about me after all, it was about them.  Maybe COVID can change our thoughts from I to we. Life will go on without us.  Thanks to COVID I have learned to center my life from I to we.  

Maybe the key to COVID is not the sickness itself but what we can learn from it.  To say COVID was a blessing may be a real stretch, but to say that what I learned from COVID was a blessing I will never forget.  Amen