Last night I spent some quiet time contemplating the state of the world. I came away with a few thoughts. I hope they help anyone taking the time to read this humble blog.

Years before Brendan Bjorn was born, I heard an interview on the radio with a lady who had terrible health issues and many disabilities. She said something in that interview that has stuck with me, as if my soul knew in advance that I would need to remember her words for the journey to come years later with Brendan. The interviewer asked her how she coped daily in light of all of her challenges. She said the following:

“I used to ask Why me? But then I realised the question to ask was, Why not me?“

Indeed, rephrasing that question changes the entire perspective of the challenges before us, doesn’t it? I think so.

I’m writing a book currently. It covers 1,000 years of history. So, last night as I sat pondering the state of the world with the pandemic, it struck me that history holds a lesson for us today. Humankind has been through pandemics, world wars, viruses that run out of control (** and still do), plagues, and more.

The lesson? Like how the lady in the radio interview so wisely made her point, I’ll phrase it in a question: Why do we now think we are exempt from such trials? As the lady in the radio interview said, Why not me?

So, why not us?

There is no answer. Just as there is no answer to Why not me?

Humankind has been through worse. And we may likely go through worse again in the future. We all need to remember that there was never, nor will there ever be, a guarantee that the way the world lives is to be the way it shall always live. Ways of being, ways of doing business, ways of living and interacting have always evolved over the generations. But we get through it, collectively, and we will again.

There is a release, a relief, in accepting this understanding.

I know first hand how desperately hard it is on a personal level. The isolation. The fear. The worry. The financial impact. I get it, truly. This year has been hell on many levels for me. But it was in these realisations last night that I felt an emotional weight be lifted from me. So, I write this blog piece hoping it may help anyone reading this in the same manner.

We will get through this, in time, and we will come out on the other side of it as a changed, and hopefully better, people.

** As those of you who have followed my journey know, the damage done to Brendan Bjorn’s brain in utero was the result of a virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), likely contracted by me while I was working as a Child and Family Therapist at a public mental health clinic as the most common way a pregnant woman contracts CMV is through young children. There is no vaccine for CMV. It continues to be a leading cause of birth defects. It is a very common virus. The last 16 years of my life have revolved around the damage done by a virus. Considering this, my absolute hate for viruses is palpable, lest anyone think I’m not considering the impact of the current pandemic. I am.