IT IS WHAT IT IS

Acceptance is very important in life.  It doesn't mean that we've given up.  It doesn't mean that we don't care. And it doesn't mean that we won't win the battle.  But, what it does mean is there is no way through this...but through it! 

I once had a very good friend and one of her favorite quotes during trying times was "it is what it is"...meaning I've accepted my situation and I'm going to deal with it. 

It's 2020 and we have found ourselves in the middle of a global pandemic.  Every single thing is different now.  Our entire way of life has changed.  Businesses's have shut down. There are no church services, no dining out, no visiting family or friends, no open shops (other than essential businesses), no movie theaters, no concerts, and no schools are open.  Life as we have always known it has come to a screeching halt.  Our world has been turned upside down and I fear that it will never again be the same!

Ten years ago I went through a similar crisis.  The big difference was that my crisis pretty much involved me and my health care team.  My health and well being didn't depend on strangers or my next door neighbors.  It didn't depend on whether people practiced social distancing or followed the rules and guidelines put in place by the governor.  

I was handed a diagnosis that I never saw coming.  I didn't feel a lump or have this nagging feeling that something was horribly wrong. I just went in for my annual routine mammogram and less than two months later, I found myself in the bowels of a Baptist  hospital having major surgery.  That was 10 years ago today and I'm thankful for those 10 more trips around the sun.  I'm thankful for Grace, Hope, and Courage.  I'm just thankful.  Period! 

Today in the midst of a national and global health crisis...I wonder how in the hell I (we) will ever get through this.  Then I remind myself that life happens one day at a time.  There are no guarantees in anything about our time and space here.  We're just here and we will do the best we can with what we have.  In the end, "it is what it is".  We cannot change a lot of things that happen to us but our power lies in the way we deal with it.