Sometimes I like to take a page or two in my journal and use the phrase “right now” as a prompt to note everything that is happening in my life…right now. Real, ordinary life passes us by so quickly and we rarely take note of it. I have found it so interesting when I look back on these entries that document what was going on at a specific time in my life – for me, for Rick, for my kids, in our town, in our country, in our world. Because we often don’t remember how things were unless we wrote them down, took pictures or posted it on social media.

Throwback 2020 is gonna be interesting in a year or twenty from now.

Besides the oft-told stories of people hoarding toilet paper and antiseptic-wipe scalpers making a killing, we are seeing unprecedented full-stops to travel, to working, to shopping, even going to church, to funerals or weddings. As each day we watch the news and hear the latest stats and mandated shutdowns, it all feels like everything is sloooowly coming to a halt.

I was rifling through my mind to identify what this whole experience reminded me of and I landed on a scene from the movie Apollo 13. In order to save power, the astronauts had to shut everything down. The lights went low, the heat went off, the constant whirring of machines quit, not unlike the eeriness of a power outage when you realize all the regular noise is absent.

In some ways, we are heading into the dark side of the moon. We don’t know exactly when we are going emerge from pandemic status, but the optimistic view is: we will. Yes, Houston, we have a problem but there are amazing people everywhere doing everything they can to land this spaceship called COVID-19.

For some of us, it may feel like we’ve lost the moon, as Jim Lovell stated as soon as he realized they had malfunctioned. Epic trips have been cancelled, stocks have plummeted, savings are being depleted. But it might be too soon to tell. Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who was banned from Apollo 13, lost the moon first, but was instrumental in getting that ship back to earth. And later, on Apollo 16, he did get to walk on the moon.

I don’t want to come off glib or cheezy. I don’t want to make light of this global event that is life- threatening (for some), stress-inducing, schedule-challenging and even, boring for those who are finding social-distancing and just staying at home difficult. Plus, no sports, no graduations, no festivals, no parties, not even any green beer in the pub.

As we emerge in a month or two from the shadow, remember to look for the bright side. I have faith that it’s there. It will always be there.