Glass-half-full

The year has seen its share of challenges. I haven’t seen any Murder Hornets yet, but I’m sure they’re on their way.

In my own household, the Coronavirus pandemic has shut down my daughter’s Peace Corps tour, cancelled our trip to see our son in California, and forced my youngest son’s school to an awkward online format. As I wrote last week, I’ve too have become a coronavirus casualty, laid off by my firm.

So, yes, COVID-19 has brought a number of changes.

Despite the cloudy skies that have marred this year, I try to be a glass-half-full kind of guy. As my family relaxed on our deck and enjoyed each other’s company over the Fourth of July weekend, I got to thinking about our country’s independence and some of the positives that have come my family’s way. When I started writing the items down on a piece of paper, I was surprised by the number.

Here’s a few:

In just the few days that I’ve posted the news about my layoff, countless friends and acquaintances have reached out to me, encouraging me to be strong. While I feel for my daughter being at home when she planned to be doing something altogether different, I couldn’t help but feel grateful to have her sharing the holiday with us. If the Peace Corps hadn’t pulled out from around the world, we would not have been able to share the day with her. Likewise, we’re not going to be able to visit our son in California like we had hoped, but we still text with him frequently and are still in the loop on everything going on in his life. And as far as our youngest son goes, yes, he had to get used to Zoom Meetings and checking in with his teachers online, but he still came back with an amazing final report card that made me proud.

We’ve lost a lot this year, but it hit me that life is a lot like the old Grantland Rice quote. The great American sportswriter wrote, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”

If you look for the good in the worse situations—I would throw-in as well, to pray and seek God’s help—you’re going to come out fine in the end. At least that’s my way of thinking.