THIS is the day, we WILL rejoice.

Face timing with my 5 year old Little, as she 'reads' to me. Who wouldn't be blessed to see that sweet face?

For the past couple of days I've had a sense of underlying sadness creeping in, not over any one thing in particular, but more EVERYTHING. At least it feels like it.

That is not me. I'm known as the family enthusiast, the cheerleader, orange juice in the morning.

But lately that's not the way I'm feeling.

We're not generally news watchers. Cub Sweetheart reads the paper thoroughly every morning, calling out to me across the house tidbits from articles he thinks will interest me. And we've started watching the 6 pm world and 10 pm local news together.

But I'm starting to feel ready to hide from the news again. Everything seems so hard, and dark, doesn't it? I won't quote the news here, because nobody needs to hear it twice right now, but it's hard, hard.

I'm definitely a cup half full, plus a little, kind of person, so if I feel this way, surely others do as well?

And what about our 'kids', trying unexpectedly (that's an understatement for sure) to homeschool their children and do their jobs from home, while overall unable to even get out to the grocery store without fear of exposing their entire family to this scary Covid19 virus.

One of our grandchildren has named this pandemic 'stinking Corona Virus'. She's only 7, and is, thankfully, overall unaware that it's taking lives, and jobs and businesses and economies. But at 7 she is aware that their trip to Disneyland got cancelled, they can't have friends over, no sleepovers, their rec center is closed, and they can't play on the equipment at the nearby park. No trips to the library, or going inside McDonalds. And I'm fairly certain that no matter how much her parents are trying to give her and her siblings a sense of 'all is well' on the home front, she likely senses something pretty weird is going on.

So what am I doing - me personally - to get through this time?

Because you can't give what you don't have.

Well, I'm face timing every single day with people I love and miss. Some of them are 2000 miles away, some are 30 minutes away but it might as well be 2000 miles because we can't be together. We're having serious conversations, some of us, and then we are also talking about bearded dragons and snow and dogs and the color of our eyes and our favorite candy and half-birthdays. I'm having little people I love and miss 'read' to me, even when they can't actually read. They're showing me their toys and what it looks like out their window, and giving me tours of their house while I try to not get motion sick.

I'm calling people who don't face time, and having long, uninterrupted conversations with them. Longer than we normally have, and that's so nice. Because thankfully nobody is in a hurry any more. Or needs to be. How weird is THAT?

I'm knitting stuffed animals and taking walks, twice a day, with CS, waving at neighbors or stopping for a chat from a safe distance.

I'm sleeping more because that's the single best thing I can do for my immune system right now and, thank you God for giving me the gift of being a great sleeper.

I'm spending 30 minutes every single morning doing yoga and then having morning devotions.

This morning I heard someone quote this verse:

THIS is the day the Lord has made. We WILL rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

I don't know what was going on, when the anonymous author wrote that verse, but if they had to tell themself to have positive thoughts, then possibly it wasn't a perfect day. Maybe it wasn't a day when it was easy to go out and be with people, to be positive and unafraid. The subheading in my Bible says, 'Confidence in God's eternal love, it is unchanging in the midst of changing situations. This gives us security. 

Well, amen to that and then some! That's the verse I'm quoting to myself today. I'm going to be more intentional of what I'm allowing into my heart, and this is a great place to start.