I pray that you are doing well. Spring is around the corner, and daffodils are starting to bloom.
It is hard to imagine that at this time last year, the world began shutting down, and everything came to a sudden halt. COVID-19 hit like a bombshell and quickly changed life as we knew it. Schools shut down, public events were canceled, and people were told not to leave their homes. A temporary solution to a potentially serious situation would be necessary to keep us safe so that we could return to a normal life.
One year ago today (March 18th), my wife and I started working from home with the anticipation of returning to the office by April 6th. That two-and-a-half-week period has turned into a full year. We are still working at home for most of our time while returning full time in the office has not yet been discussed.
No one could have imagined that a year later, we are still talking about it. We are still under the grips of COVID-19 and still looking to return to normal. What is normal? Thankfully, we see the light at the end of the tunnel. People are now being vaccinated, new cases are going down, and businesses are being reopened.
Without question, COVID has affected everyone, either directly or indirectly. Many people lost their jobs, their livelihoods, and even their lives. We remember and honor these people. While people may disagree about prevention and treatment methods, we all must agree that when life gets back to normal, it will not be the same normal as before. For the first time, people have focused on cleanliness at home and in public. Working from home has become the norm, and with a greater expectation of continuing. Loneliness and depression have escalated. People will love and appreciate their friends and family more after being isolated from them for such a long period of time.
For me personally, I see an increased change in ways that I didn’t think was possible. I started looking inside myself and my life. Working from home had proven to be a viable option for me when I never thought it could be possible. I have attended several online training sessions for personal and professional growth that was never available in the virtual format before COVID-19. I could spend more time with my wife, Seppe, and with our Vinny as he faced the last months of his life.
Our Vinny
How has COVID-19 changed your life? Are you concerned about the new normal, or do you embrace change? How are you planning to alter your daily life to remain safe? Let me know in the comments below.
A not so typical day turned into a day that I will never forget.
February 12th produced an atypical rainstorm. But through the night, the temperature dropped and turned bitter cold by the morning of the 13th. A school group planned a visit to the Library and I planned to arrive early to work with them. Vinny, our then 12-year-old collie, had an appointment to have his teeth cleaned. It was a full day before it even began.
We dropped off Vinny a little after 8 am and arrived to work at 8:45 am. As I was walking into the building, I slipped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk and landed on my left shoulder. After the initial shock of realizing what happened, my wife checked me out and helped me to stand up. I was in pain, but I thought everything would be okay. I managed to walk inside, check-in with the security office, and went into the restroom before heading to my desk. While heading upstairs with my wife by my side, I had to sit down at one of the tables because the pain began to increase to an unbearable point. After sitting for a few minutes and thinking it was getting better, I attempted to stand up. The pain shot through my body and I never made it up. My wife asked the security officer to call an ambulance. I needed to go to the emergency room for further observations and testing.
Thankfully the ambulance arrived quickly and my trip to the ER was short. The hospital was only about a mile away. Not many people were in the ER, so the doctors and nurses checked me out soon after arriving. After a set of X-rays, they determined that I fractured my left humerus bone, just below the shoulder. When I lost my footing on the ice and since the sidewalk sloped downward, my shoulder and arm took a direct hit instead of my bum.
The doctors decided that the fracture was not severe enough to put on a cast, but a sling would suffice. The doctor advised me to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon within a few days to determine a full recovery plan. The days and weeks ahead would be a challenge. One that I have never forget. In all my life, I had never broken any bones, so this was a first for me. In a series of posts, I will share some of my experiences and how it took almost six months to be back to normal.
I hope you are having a blessed day. Today, we celebrate the most important day in the Christian faith. The significance of Easter is far more important than that of Christmas. If it were not for Jesus Christ defeating death, hell, and the grave; we would not have the everlasting life promised to us. All I can say is, “Thank You, Jesus!”
We all know that Easter 2020 is not like any other Easter that any of us have ever experienced. For the first time since the resurrection of Jesus, people are at home celebrating this holiday. Church buildings are closed and people are not able to gather together and share in their faith. This virus has caused the world to cease normal activities and seek safety in our homes.
Although we could not gather in person with our church family, we were still able to get together through Facebook live streaming the service. Thanks to technology we are able to still see our family and friends, meet up with colleagues and attend concerts in another city. Could you imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have this technology? We definitely would be alone, and I know many of us would not be able to cope with it.
One tradition that my wife and I usually do after we get home from Easter service is to take a few family portraits. You know, for new profile pics on Facebook and Instagram. And this year was no different. My wife picked a blue lace dress that she had bought last year and I picked a shirt, pant, vest combo that coordinated with my blue. We didn’t want what was going on in the world to stop us from keeping up with our traditions. It would be so easy to say, “WHY? It’s not worth it!” We can’t let the circumstances of what is happening today to stop us from living our life. We can’t let the devil win! We need to remember that the church is not a building we go to, but we are the church. Wherever we are, the church is right there! So that is why we decided to get dressed like we normally would do for Easter Service and take part in our annual photoshoot. The only difference was this year it was inside because it was raining here at the time.
Easter Service was so good and yes we can be at church in our homes watching the service on the television or our smartphone or tablet.
The message was, “Put Jesus in the Center of the Crisis”
Some of my notes from the message from my pastor. For one is that God is for us and we have to make him bigger than the virus.
How big is your God today?
What do we need to make Christ the center of the crisis?
Believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and died for our sins and rose again.
Accept him as your Savior.
Make him my Lord and put him first. Give God the first part of every day
Share the love of God with someone.
It was so moving to watch Andrea Bocelli performing at the Duomo Cathedral in Milan, Italy. Amazing Grace really touched me. If you haven’t seen it please watch this performance of hope for the world please watch the video below.
Happy Easter! May your day be filled with the peace and joy that comes from knowing the Risen Savior!
I hope you are staying safe and are well on this snowy Sunday afternoon.
My wife and I are dealing with many emotions about what is going on in the world today.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the world to come to a sudden halt. In an attempt to curtail the spread of the virus, extreme measures have been implemented by government agencies – canceling social gatherings, working from home, and shutting down non-essential businesses. While we understand the severity of the pandemic and agree with the measures put into place to flatten the curve, we are also extremely disappointed because we could not take our vacation that we have dreamed of for more than ten years.
For the next two weeks, we were supposed to be seeing the Best of Italy: Rome, Florence, and Venice; touring the island of Capri, staying in a convent in Assisi, shopping in Milan, experiencing the ruins of Pompeii; with visits to the Vatican, the Colisseum, Romeo and Juliet’s balcony, and even a side trip to Lugano, Switzerland.
We celebrated our 20th anniversary back in September and this trip was meant to be a present to each other. Italy has been tops on our list of places to visit for many years. We are fascinated by the country’s history and culture. The art, the architecture, the food, the people. It doesn’t get much better than Italy. We love Italy so much that we gave our dogs Italian names … Gio the Beagle (short for Giovanni), Vinny the Collie (short for Vincenzo) and Seppe the Beagle (short for Giuseppe).
While we had many wonderful vacations in the past – Colorado, Utah, Canada, and the Caribbean – an Italian vacation has been on minds all the while. However, finding the right package, at the right price with the right places to visit proved to be a difficult task. We started putting extra money into the savings with the intent of an Italian getaway. After extensive research and exploring endless options of tour packages, we found a trip that would be a perfect 20th-anniversary present for each other.
Originally, we were supposed to be traveling during Thanksgiving. We decided for November instead of September because the price is dramatically less, there are fewer travelers, and the temperatures are a bit on the cooler side. Unfortunately, the tour company canceled that tour because not enough people had booked the tour for it to be confirmed. It turns out that November was not a good time to visit because the entire country was inundated with rain and Venice had the worst floods in fifty years. We were forced to select a new date for departure. We selected March 22 because the price of the new trip was the same as original and the weather was ideal for traveling.
But alas, that trip too was canceled because, well, you know the reason. The COVID-19 virus started in China and then spread quickly across the world. And sadly, Italy has been the hardest country, recording over 5,400 at the time of this writing. The number of cases increased from only three in late February to now at almost 60,000. The rate at which the number of cases grew caused the US government to recommend reschedule all unnecessary travel with an ultimate ban of travel to and from Europe. When these travel restrictions were put into place, we know that we were not going on our dream vacation.
Thankfully, our trip was canceled by the tour company, which means we are able to rebook with them for the same trip anytime this year or next year. Ideally, we would like to go this year; but with all that is happening with this virus and with the devastation in Italy, we think it will be too soon to go in September or November. We are looking at maybe March of next year. This would give the country time to recover and be ready to welcome guests.
One bit of irony, a broken arm could not stop us from going to Italy, but the COVID-19 did. On February 13, I fell on the ice going into work, breaking my left humerus bone, just below my shoulder.
In the Emergency Room, finding out that I had a broken arm.
For the first week, there was a bit uncertainty about whether I would be able to go on the trip. My doctor needed a follow-up CT-scan to view the break and to ensure that it was not too serve and determine if surgery was needed. When he viewed the CT-scan, he said that the bone could heal on its own just fine and surgery was not needed. Knowing that our trip was only a month away, I asked the doctor if it was okay to travel. He gave his approval because by that time the bone would have healed enough not to hinder travel. I was elated as if I could jump for joy, I would have. But sadly, in only two weeks the trip was canceled. Our roller coaster of emotions has been up and down, up and down during the last six weeks.
I must say this, we are not in fear because we are standing on the Word of God and are rooted in our faith. We believe that we need to keep up to date on what is happening, but we don’t let the news consume us and cause us to be afraid. We ask God for His wisdom as we go through this time. It is important to call on Him and ask for His peace to be in your life as well. He will never leave you in your time of need. We recommend reading Psalm 91 and Ephesians 6:10-20 every day to help counteract the fear and the anxiety that the world is showing right now.
Today is July 29th. I will be upfront with you. I use to hate this day. Whenever I heard it mentioned or saw it on the calendar, my heart would break and my mood would dampen. How could a single day have such an effect on me? Well, on this day, back in 1987 my father passed away when he lost his battle with lung cancer.
The only known photo of only me and my father together.
I was only twelve. I felt like my whole world had been broken and shattered. I didn’t know what it all meant and I didn’t know how to handle it. Only two months had passed from the time that my father found out that he had lung cancer to the day that he died. My family had to deal with the shock of the diagnosis, the trauma of him being in ICU and the agony of him being unable to breath on his own or talk with us. My summer started out thinking about making the baseball team and ended with learning how to restart my life without my father.
As the years passed, it didn’t get any easier. When the calendar would change to July, my thoughts would turn to my father. Memories would race through my mind. I would think about the times that he missed out and I didn’t have with him in my life: the first shave, the graduations, the father-son talks, the holidays. Depression and anger gripped my life and held a tight hold over me. I was angry at him that he had died. I was angry that cancer took him away from me. I was angry that I didn’t have my father to help me through the stages of life. The more angry that I got, the more depressed that I got. The anger and depression came to a breaking point eight years later when my oldest sister died from lymphoma.
The anger and depression further escalated, and I had no way of dealing with it. It was my final year of college and my life seemed to be out of control. I had stopped attending church because I felt like it had betrayed me after my father and sister died. I turned 21 and I began spending time in bars with my college acquaintances. I tried to dull my pain; but it didn’t seem to help.
I graduated from college and began my new life on my own. However, I still faced a difficult road ahead because I had no way to deal with the depression and the anger. But soon my life would begin to change when I met someone, while at work, who would help me take that first step on the road to recovery. We both had difficult circumstances in our childhood that we had to overcome. She had lost her mother a few years prior; and together we helped each other cope with the loss of a parent. All the while, she also encouraged me to re-examine my faith in God and it took me back to church. This was not the traditional denominational church that I was use from my childhood. It focused more on a relationship with God and His Son, Jesus Christ. It was in the relationship and the studying of what God tells us in His word that I began to see my life change.
I am no longer angry. I am no longer living a state of depression and sadness. By studying what God’s word says, I learned that my father’s sickness was a part of the devil’s plan to steal, kill and destroy his life; and take away the good memories my father had created. My faith in God, His Son and His word has strengthened me and keeps me strong on days like today.
Now when July 29th approaches, my attitude is much different. The heartache and pain has given way to peace and joy. Peace in knowing that the disease may have destroyed his body; but it didn’t take away his spirit. I have joy knowing that he wanted me as his son and convinced my mother to have just ‘one more baby’!! I focus on the good memories we shared and the positive influence he had on so many other people. Until this day, I have found no one who has a bad word to say about him.
It is worth noting here that the wonderful woman who started out with me as a colleague at work. But we soon became very close friends. And on September 11, 1999 she became my wife and we are celebrating twenty years of marriage. Thank you, Lord Jesus for putting my baby in my life and helping me see that I didn’t have to live with depression and anger.
Learn More About JT Bubbling with Elegance and Grace is a place for life long learners. The Bubbling With Elegance And Grace team was created 14 years ago. A passion for fashion sparked a lifestyle blog for our Elegant Community to enjoy. We are thankful and in gratitude to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for those who have been with us from the beginning and those who have just started riding with us on this lovely journey.
Our Vinny
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