I know we are all watching the latest news of the COVID-19 Omicron variant with a mix of anxiety, curiosity, frustration, heartbreak, resignation.  I know that I’m also feeling impatience.  Two years seems too long.  I want to get back to the things I love, the church I love, the people I love.

I feel myself wanting to pretend it already is over and barrel ahead doing what I want to do anyway.  I feel myself reluctant to once again change my plans because the epidemic took an unexpected turn.

But my Unitarian Universalism is a reality-based faith.  My faith teaches me that spiritual health requires living in the real world.  And that means acknowledging that I am powerful but not all powerful.  Other people have wants and desires and different circumstances from mine.  There are realities of resources to deal with:  space, time, money and work.  The natural world follows its own laws.  My health comes from respecting the parts of reality I cannot control.   For instance, I don’t get to decide when this epidemic is over.  I have to wait.

And so, one of the lessons of the pandemic for me, is a lesson about patience.  Take a breath.  Relax.  Love the world outside my control.  Let go.  Ground myself, once again, in reality.  Trust.