We have experienced some trying times the last few months. It has been hard for many of us to have faith a vaccine or other solution will be found soon. It is so hard to keep hearing about those who are sick or have passed. Sometimes it may seem like we will never be able to have the close contact with others we had in the past. I really miss my social dancing! Some of us have lost faith that justice will be available for all people. Many of us are losing patience. In another newsletter I wrote studies have shown the average human attention span has decreased to 8 seconds. A goldfish with a 9 second span of attention is better than us! We want things quickly and are not willing to wait.

Since I’m a context person I’ve just started researching other similar times in history. In 1918 there was no vaccine and also a fear the health system would be over taxed. Back then they called social distancing “crowding control” and it worked to lessen the spread of the disease. Finally with no vaccine enough people developed immunity. I’m keeping faith that we have technology now and know so much more now than in 1918 when they didn’t understand viruses. Brilliant people all over the world are looking for solutions.

Things often don’t happen on our timeline as my old house taught me. I started to think of my old house as one found in horror movies, where the evil house won’t let the people go. It was way too much work for me for a long time and I finally got a home improvement loan to sell in 2016. I then had six totally different areas of water damage to fix.  Right when ready for market last fall a new roof was needed so a delaying in selling.  Also, I went through the loan money so had to use retirement funds.  My intuition said sell In February. I was finally ready to put it on market and had a brand new area of water damage in January. Went for a low cash offer on 3/31 selling house in the midst of economic panic so the lowest prices.  I had also lost income from all three of my jobs so I panicked.

The house delays were very costly and extremely frustrating (I swore a lot and I don’t often swear). I really, really tried to keep the faith the delays were leading me to the perfect house in divine timing. On Wednesday I closed on a house with this back yard.

I became obsessed with having a view of water 20 years ago when I lived about three blocks from Lake Harriet. I would have even purchased a house where I could see the lake if I climbed on the roof! I did not have the budget to move closer to Harriet. So I bought a house by Cedar Lake and ran and walked there all the time. My new house came on the market less than a week after I closed on my old one. I really believe if things had happened on my timeline, I would not have this view now.

What are you doing to keep the faith? Support groups or faith based communities can be helpful. Nature itself is a great teacher in it’s seasons. We in the cold climates know there will be spring after the long winter. In our lives there is a season for everything and time for every season. Also for me as mentioned studying history helps. I feel we need to know the news most days I limit it to ten minutes of watching the negative stuff. I’m keeping my focus on the good news about help for our situation that’s going on right now. I’m going to listen to a U of Minnesota webinar called COVID-19 as a Catalyst for Innovation to help me keep hopeful. I’m also taking a college class in positive psychology, more on that next month.

None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith. – Paulo Coelho