How Will We Pick Up the Pieces of Our Broken Lives?

     When I spotted this broken phone along a hiking trail, I thought about how our lives have been trampled upon by coronavirus: lost jobs, lost businesses, lost graduations, lost wedding celebrations.     
     And lost lives.     
     How easy it was in the past for us to believe that we are masters of our fate, captains of our souls. How wrong we were.     
     And how easy it was to be sidetracked from what’s important. Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Dutch professor who wrote on modern spirituality, said, “…we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying or doing. We simply go along with the many ‘musts’ and ‘oughts’ that have been handed on to us.”     
     I hope to live more mindfully now, grateful for little things I once took for granted, like walking down the block and greeting neighbors from closer than six feet when it’s safe.     
     Twenty-seven hundred years ago, a Hebrew named Micah said that God commends those who practice justice and mercy while walking humbly with God. Perhaps in the past we’ve focused on the justice and mercy part, but didn’t fully acknowledge our true source of life. Perhaps we forgot that even the simplest gifts are from God.     
​     As we gradually pick up the pieces of our lives, may our vision become as crystal-clear as the number of this year - 2020.