It’s currently raining outside my window. Honestly, it feels like it’s been raining for a year. That’s what this pandemic has felt like- bad weather.
Can’t go out - the weather is bad.
Can’t travel - the weather is bad.
Can’t do the usual things - the weather is bad.
The weather is not just bad - it’s deadly.
One long, unending year of bad, treacherous weather.
This past week, however, I caught a glimpse of the sun. I can just barely make out blue skies on the horizon.
An end to the bad weather.
Last Wednesday an amazing young woman named Amanda Gorman stood in front of our nation and shared a poem of hope.
She was bold.
She was confident.
She was dressed as the sun.
She was like a golden ray who announced that the end of this bad weather was in sight. She brought us what we needed most - hope.
To me, she was an umbrella that made the bad weather pause for just a moment. Reminding me of what it felt like before the storm.
She had me already starting to feel hope again, and then on Friday my niece texted me a picture of my parents after their first dose of the Covid vaccine.
I haven’t seen my parents for over a year.
The two trips we were supposed to take to see them this past year were both canceled. We just couldn’t risk seeing them. We’ve talked on the phone and kept in touch, but it's not the same.
I need to see my parents, to hug them, kiss them, and laugh with them again.
With my parents receiving their first dose of the vaccine - I can see the light get even brighter.
I can see the sun again,
It’s in the distance, but it’s there.
I decided at the beginning of the year that my word for 2021 would be hope, I’m clinging to that word with all I’ve got.
Hope that I’ll be able to see my parents soon.
Hope that the future for all of us will be brighter.
My hope was bolstered last week. I believe it’s enough to get me through the rest of this storm.
This bad weather will end, and when it does I will remember the people and things that brought me hope.
Until then - I will try to be an umbrella to those around me. I will try to help others through this storm.
This too shall pass.
Amy Young
Confessions of a GenX Mom
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