Historians (His-story-ans)

In my last post, I talked about a friend who was fighting for his life in a hospital here in town. Chuck didn't receive the miracle he needed here on earth and after two and a half weeks in intensive care, he entered eternity on February 23. He was a young 60 years old when he passed, exactly my age, and his wife Barb is left a widow at 60. Some deaths are harder than others. This one has been sobering for me, realizing it could as easily have been R.J. or me. Watching my dear friend Barb walk this road has been tough.

After Chuck was first hospitalized, I started working on a Shutterfly book. It may seem like a weird kind of response, but it was therapy for me. I ended up making two books. The first book remembered a trip R.J. and I took in 2017, down to the Gulf shore. I had about a thousand beautiful pictures to choose from, and I had blogged about the trip as well, so that book was pretty easy to put together. I got pleasure from creating page after page of pictures, lining up all those photo edges (because Shutterfly software lets you do that easily), and picking background colors. Adding in the stories was as easy as copying my blogs and pasting them into text boxes in the book. I was in the mood to cherish memories that R.J. and I have made together, and the process of putting the book together and recalling our adventures (as I read through my own words) eased my sorrow a bit. The other book commemorates the first 33 Minnesota state parks that R.J. and I have visited. I had been planning to do a book about that when we were done visiting all 67 of them, but then it occurred to me that I probably couldn't fit them all into one book. If there had to be two volumes, why not do Volume 1 now? So I did. That one was considerably longer than the Gulf trip book (73 pages vs. 44 pages). I wrote a brief comment on each park, and there were a couple of longer sections of text when I had blogged about the parks or our desire to see them all. I just got those books yesterday, and I am eager to pore over them. I often look at the other Shutterfly books I have created, and I think the same will be true for these. I always have a lot of writing in my Shutterfly books. I have found that no matter how convinced I am that I will always remember events, the specifics slip away if I don't write them down. I love having the pictorial and written records together, and I think the books will mean something to others once I am gone - much more than just picture books would.

 

The unsettling time of my friend having a heart attack and passing away has been followed by an unsettling time of the coronavirus spreading and upending the whole world as we know it. It is easy to get rattled when your retirement funds are shrinking, your schools and sporting events are suspended indefinitely, and small business owner friends are navigating uncharted waters. Even shopping has lost its joy, as we grapple with finding items we consider essential while at the same time keeping our social distancing requirements intact. There are so many unknowns right now! Honestly, my friend Barb could attest to the fact that the perception of certainty is the real lie. We never know what tomorrow will bring, even when we think we do. We never have control of our lives, even when we think we do. We are not in charge of the future. We have our yesterdays. We can't go back, but we can make amends as needed. We can forgive. We can be thankful. We have NOW. We can be kind every chance we get. We can tell people how much we love and appreciate them. We can be thankful. Tomorrow is not promised. We need to come to terms with that. I need to come to terms with that. This pandemic will create some losses: vacations, events, jobs, and even lives. It will create some blessings as well: more family time, creative problem solving, slowing down, and even deepening our relationship with God. Nobody would ask for something as sweeping as this pandemic has become, but this is what we have. It is our moment, our NOW, and each of us needs to decide what we are going to do with that.

We are living through the kind of history that people write books about. I had that feeling one other time in my life, and that was on 9/11/2001. What has been resonating with me right now is that you and I have the opportunity to be historians. All ages, all backgrounds – we can all be historians. If you have never kept a journal, now is the time to start! (You can use pencil and paper if you like, but I rarely do anymore. Computers make writing way easier. Even phones will work, if you are more skilled than I am....) Write down your perceptions of the events of the day, or reactions, or life adjustments, or lessons learned, or scripture verses that helped. Write down your prayers. Tell the funny stories. Tell the sad stories. Ask your kids for their thoughts and write down their responses if they are too young to do that. Not everyone is a writer, of course. Some may want to make a video of their thoughts. Maybe that is easier. Keeping the memories alive is the point, so any way you can do it, keep a record of what is happening now and how it is impacting you. The fact is, we won't remember it all (even though we think we will) in a few years. If we write it down, we might gain some perspective just in the process of writing. We might feel empowered to act on something we write about. We might feel like we want to start sharing our writing. We might follow up with writing a note of encouragement to someone. The possibilities are tremendous! It is way better than reposting the latest coronavirus meme. And I promise, in a few years we will read what we wrote and be transported right back to this time. Writing can be a form of therapy both now and later. Be a historian. Start today.

As you ponder what to write, how to express what you are feeling, how to ride out this challenging time – always remember that nothing is too big for God.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:28-31