Remembrance Day has come and gone, and the sights and sounds of the Yuletide are about to make their appearance. The last vestiges of the calendar are ticking by on one of the most chaotic years in history.

The pandemic which is life threatening yet in the opening salvo insecure citizens bought every roll of toilet paper they could find. It was sort of a metaphor for the kind of year that would unfold.

Elections sprang up like unwanted mushrooms on the lawn. New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, BC rumbling threats about a federal and of course the madness of the US election.

Then came the second wave of the virus we all knew it was coming yet we express a measure of surprise and uncertainty. I hear some stories from people and who still think it’s a hoax. I have a friend in Minnesota she is a front line nurse in a hospital. She contracted it recovered and is back at work. She has problems fatigue etc. She went back to assist fellow workers. Like she said it is real and not just another flu.

This has been a year of division and polarized views of the world around us. There are those who read truth from unknown sources and some who are little more than quacks.

There are many acting out because of uncertainty and fear of what we cannot control. One hundred years ago we had some opposed to taking precautions or wearing masks during the Spanish Flu. It killed millions. We have advanced the medical world through science but we still do not have the answers for everything.

So what is really happening to create such resistance to common sense?

People in the modern world feel the changes taking place around them. In my opinion there is a difference seeing change or hearing change and feeling the unfamiliar feeling of change.

Feeling change creates uncertainty and in some vases triggers many negative responses. The danger is we become somewhat deaf when it comes to hearing the voices of our better angels. Not having all the answers to a whirlwind of unexpected changes is also frightening. The positive is this, 2020 started out as a year of angst but the year is approaching its end. We are also entering the season of hope and promise. Some say it will be a dark lonely affair. The other side is, it is what we make it.

At times like these I hear my mothers words. Unlike her you won’t find me in a church pew very often. She was a woman of faith. When things were in doubt and rocky she would say:
“you’re about to find out what your made of because God never gives us more than we can handle.”

I think it’s time we all take a deep breath and understand this is our moment to find out what we’re made of because all this craziness shall pass.

This Yuletide season – instead of complaining about what we can’t do –  lets focus on what we can do. We have time to make a difference.

 

 

 

Fred Steele