Scarcity vs Abundance

By Julie Bradley, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.

There’s a stark feeling of scarcity in the air these days.
Not enough masks or PPE.
Not enough hospital beds or ventilators.
Not enough tests.
Not enough toilet paper.
Not enough time slots for grocery pick up.
Not enough competence in our current leader.
Not enough places to go to keep our minds distracted from the brutal reality of this novel virus.
And yet…
There’s another side to this coin, another perspective to view it from.
There’s an abundance of time–for sleep, for exercise, for cooking, for talking with family, for meditating, for texting, for reading, for writing in this journal.
There’s an abundance of history to reflect on in which our ancestors lived through pandemics, wars, depressions.
There’s an abundance of strength, wisdom, and hope in the human spirit.
There’s an abundance of opportunity to reflect on what truly matters to us and how to use this unprecedented time to decide how we will move through ‘ordinary’ time, when it returns.