Dear Friends,

Maybe it’s because in my own life, waiting has been a “normal”, this is not as hard for me. I won’t bore you with the list of all that I’ve waited for in my life, but I will tell you there is a spiritual discipline about waiting. Around Advent, we talk a lot about waiting. It’s the season for waiting for Christ’s birth, but also Scriptures in the lectionary talk about how we are all waiting for Christ’s second coming. We live in the “already” and “not yet”. God’s Kingdom is already here. Christ lives now in our hearts. The Spirit is palpable and visible in the movements, words, situations and happenings of our lives. God is already here. And Christ is coming. So, we wait. 

Now we wait for mandates of social distancing and quarantines to be lifted. We especially wait for this virus to leave, go away. We wait for medications of hopeful relief tested for use soon and vaccines created for prevention in the future. We wait in our homes, only going out to get takeout, groceries, prescriptions. Since I’m practiced at waiting, I would like to offer you some coping strategies. First, make a schedule of sorts. Keep to your bedtime and your time of waking up. Even if you don’t sleep well, get up in the morning so that your body stays in a rhythm. Eat how you normally eat. Keep things as “normal” for you as you can.