There’s this idea that a butterfly can flap its wings in one part of the world and halfway across the world it can cause a storm. To me, that means that we are all connected. Nothing happens in this world that doesn’t change the rest of us, even if we don’t know it.
The hardest part for me of the pandemic is the millions of lives that were lost and the millions of lives that were changed. Every life that was lost and still is being lost changes the world and it can never be the same. The TV talks about “the new normal”, but there’s nothing normal about it.
The other day I was watching a movie that was over twenty years old and I had seen countless times. The movie had never made me emotional before, but this time as I watch it, I did feel emotional as I saw all these lives lost in the disaster that ensued before my eyes. I could feel my eyes well with tears and my heart beat faster as I felt emotional pain at the thought of people losing their lives. I told my husband later that night that I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t know why it those scenes would disturb me now. I told him how I had noticed now any violence on TV or movies was very disturbing to me. Seeing loss of life really bothers me now when it didn’t before.
It’s because in the last two years, this world has felt more loss than it has from any single war. It’s because our world has known more suffering than anyone could have imagined. Yet, instead of the crisis bringing us closer together as a world family; it has only shown some of the worst in us. It has shown our hatred and selfishness. Sometimes, I wonder if I am the only one who feels this heaviness on my heart knowing and feeling this great loss that the world has suffered.
Today, the world inches closer and closer to war. If it comes, more of my brothers and sisters will die and suffer pain. It won’t be like the movies; it will be real and once it starts the world is never going to be the same. I pray for peace.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
