With Utmost Regards, 2020

I see you are making it, through a season of adversity that has yet been marked by an end. Day by day, that is what they say. Actually, they have little say in the matter, as day by day is the only way.

You were not exactly a fan. So many memes, tik toks, funny things you’ve penned to crack the tension, but did you catch the gifts? The ones I left for you? Did you recognize them as gifts? Well they were, at least that was my intention, to give you what you could not get for yourself (perhaps you did not know that they were desirable, so busy, focused on other things).

I dumped your calendar. Literally, cleared it through and through, rearranged it in a manner that you would not dare do for yourself. Oh sure, it was unsettling. But had you seen it? A mess, filled with appointments and flights, and double booked sporting events for your multiple children, dinners and dates with people you didn’t really like (or worse, you didn’t know). Time. I gave you time. Did you find it?

I sent you home, to your base. How did it receive you? Had it been well tended, or did you find it unkept? Did you find it to be, well to be home? And now, have you learned to rest there? Have you made it a better place, a safer place, a place for growing? Or still, is it a place to leave?

I sent you outdoors and gave you sunshine. Oh the sunrises and sunsets that I graced you with as you took your fun outdoors. I gave you stars and planet conjunctions and blue moons. Did you use these to count the days, since I blew your calendar up? A reminder that day by day adversity passes while beautiful stays.

I closed down your fancy church buildings and schools. I gave you an opportunity to understand that churches are built with people and not bricks. I let you see what is being taught to your children while you have been busy building your own life (I even gave you refresher lessons in algebra, chemistry and Spanish…bonus).

I gave you heroes wrapped in the standard human package. People who walked into the unknown to care for your sick, your vulnerable. Heroes who worked at your groceries and delivered your mail, who cleaned your workplace, and stayed opened while you went into hiding. Did you find them? Did you see them being brave?

I gave you a look at social injustice, wrapped in humanity with names and faces. I let you glimpse into a cauldron of boiling anger, justified anger, sadness. Did you look at this gift, or did you turn away? Your United, not so united. I wonder if you could see that different is not so different. I gave you this at the cost of human lives, businesses, streets littered with broken glass and peppered with fire.

I gave you fire in your lands, stealing your homes, your beautiful places, your vineyards. More heroes, this time with faces darkened by soot. A reminder that land requires stewardship, that you are the steward of a planet that is home to more than just you.

I gave you floodwaters, hurricanes, storms. A reminder that life is fragile, and what you pine for can be taken down in a day.

Your hands were full with adversity. More adversity, waiting and not having than you have encountered yet, in your life. “People and nations are forged in the fire of adversity” (John Adams), have you read that quote before? Perhaps I am gifting you change that you were not brave to make on your own.

Gifts are funny things. You can receive them momentarily and then dump them once I leave. They can be boxed and stored for later. Or they can be received, kept and incorporated into your life. The gifts I gave you were costly. What is your intention? What will you do with them?

My time is passed. I hope that you will not forget the gifts that I brought. I hope that change will come.

With utmost regards, 2020