SUNNYSIDE UP MOMENT - APRIL 18, 2020

DAY THIRTY-THREE OF THE CORONAVIRUS SHUTDOWN FOR US AT STACK 'EM HIGH PANCAKES AND SO FORTH

When I was pregnant with our second child, I distinctly remember wrestling with the possibility that I wouldn't love the new baby as much as I loved our beautiful daughter.  The thought seriously loomed at the edges of my mind.  Our daughter was bursting with joy, always smiling and singing.  Her thick curls adorned her perfectly plump, cherubic face.  How on God's green earth was I going to siphon love away from her to bestow upon another?  Maybe this is something I should have thought about nine months earlier.

Like so many of life's lessons, the answer revealed itself without much pomp and circumstance.  This absolute truth simply unfolded right in front of my eyes.  Love isn't finite.  There isn't a fixed amount to be divided and redistributed.  Love is exponential.  Love multiplies!  I couldn't have extracted love from our daughter to give to our son even if I had tried.  Once you are in relationship with another, no matter how significant, that piece of yourself you have already given no longer belongs to you.  It belongs as much to the other person as it does to the sacred space between you. 

In this strange and scary time of isolation and social distancing, we have risen to the challenge of finding new and creative ways to stay connected.  We have opened unconventional avenues of love and compassion and our neighbors and communities are better for it.  But now, as we peek around the corner of this crisis, is maybe the most important time of all to keep those love lights shining.  An African Proverb tells us, “Let your love be like misty rain; gentle in coming but flooding the river.”  Our efforts have helped to slow the spread of the virus, let’s continue in good faith as we accelerate the spread of love to each other.