DeColores,
Recently I had the
wonderful weekly opportunity to share with Al Martella and a regular group of
men who have been on a conference call weekly since the Pandemic began. It is truly enriching.
Today Al asked each of us to
share how we are coping with the pandemic personally! The responses were heartfelt, emotional,
personal and prayerful.
I was the last speaker, the
clean up “batter” so to speak.
I based my thoughts on the
Tripod (Piety, Study and Action)
My first step in coping with
this is to continue and strengthen my own prayer life… I attend 2 weekday
Masses and one on Sunday and made myself useful by assisting the Church team in
organizing the return to Church effort.
I start my day with morning prayer, and do a good amount of spiritual
reading. I try to go out of the house
and sit in a park, by the complex pool or outside of Dunkin Donuts (cannot give
up that first Cup!!) I am reading the
biography of John Paul 2! It is 1000
pages and I read it as spiritual reading and Study. His life is amazing, inspirational and gives
me strength and guidance! That first
step of Piety is an absolute in handling this pandemic for me personally.
The next step for me is the discipline
and a study of my own physical and mental health. I have made a significant effort to improve
my health at my Baby Boomer age. I made
the commitment to lose some excess pounds and lost 10 to date. I have visited
my physician for a check up and she was really happy with the results of the
visit. I have committed along with my daily reading and spiritual growth to do
some form of exercise “daily”, walking a measured distance or swimming and some
light weight lifting. The benefit of
exercise is extremely helpful for your mental and emotional state during this
very stressful time in our lives. I find
that if I watch too much TV, especially during the day it encourages depression
to occur over this pandemic. Shut or
limit the TV!! Use the sun that God gave
us to energize yourself, the Vitamin D is significant in building up the immune
system in your body and it is “free”!!
The final point I made in my
witness is Action! I take action with my
family, checking in with them and preparing meals for the more local
siblings! I find being present, social
distancing with a backyard picnic or just sitting around a fire pit are simple
ways to promote family life. I also find
that preparing and delivering a bowl of Italian meatballs lifts everyone’s
spirits very high.
I have also remained very
active in my community without meeting with people in large groups. I attend zoom meetings, raise money for the
food bank, continue to develop plans for a YMCA in my community and I keep my
finger in the life of our school system.
Reaching out to others in whatever way you can will take your thoughts
off yourself and put your energy with others!
So let’s close, thanking God daily
for all of our gifts and family. Let’s
continue our daily prayer and study, while taking care of our health to the
best of our ability!
DeColores and as Bishop Sheen would close: GOD LOVE YOU!!!!
