(a 4 minute read) As a nurse serving patients in a CoVid-19 ward did a tour of 4 weeks. I am so very excited to go home to see my seven year old son. I missed his embrace, as he’s the kind that holds onto you, as if it is for dear life. Oh how good it feels when he does that. Then, at that moment I remembered……….. I have to isolate for fourteen more days before I can touch him, hold him, kiss him, embrace him. Now that’s gonna suck more, a thousand times more than the four week tour. Just sitting there waiting doing nothing, counting the hours and the days. Do you, yes you the reader, feel me? Should I quarantine, self-isolate, separate myself from my beloved son???

My daughter came to me to announce that she’s joining the army at the height of the Afghanistan war. She further explained that she is so excited that her battalion will be serving on the front-line once deployed. I am of course excited for her excitement. I am so very proud of her that she is serving the country that I adore. But what is happening on the inside of me as a father……….!? Is there fear for her safety? Am I aching for her well-being? Would I even rather, as a father, that my daughter ain’t the one going? Do you, yes you the reader, feel me? Should I try and talk her out of it???

I imagine that your response is; Of course the nurse should self-isolate! Why? Dah, it’s the safety of her son that matters!! As for the father; Of course do not talk the daughter out of joining the army!! Why? Because it ain’t about you dad, it’s about your daughter and what she wants to do to serve her country!!

If these are indeed your gut reactions to these scenarios, then why is there such an angry sentiment out there around this shelter in place stuff going around!!?? Don’t get me wrong;

Does it suck                                         Not just suck, it bites a BIG one

Is it making me go crazy                                Not just crazy, but how about insane

Is it causing my business to suffer            Not only suffer, but go bankrupt

But we are not only at war, we are at war with an invisible something. Can’t shoot it, can’t build a barrier to block it, can’t even see it to protect myself against it………………. What’s offered as a solution?? The only weapon I’ve been provided is;

Shelter in place                 WHY?                    For the sake of others.

For the sake of my son I have to quarantine myself

For the sake of my daughter I won’t try and talk her out of it

For at peace I should not come first but more importantly

                AT WAR;  I CANNOT COME FIRST

Remember, the WORLD IS AT WAR TOGETHER. The shelter in place is not an American invention, it is a worldwide action taken to minimize, at best, the impact of this CoVid-19 pandemic. Look at the world around us……………… it is a for real thing.

At war, our daughters, sons, brothers and sisters go out ‘there’ and defend us. If we are invaded, we ‘here’ have to form a resistance together and fight. Why? So we can someday overcome the invasion.

So when you hear words, stances, positions and sides; when you hear “them” and “us” during this invasion, think of this;

Is it the great inconveniences I am suffering right now? That matter most??

Or uniting to form a resistance against this, this worldwide invader………… If this sounds like a line from a movie, ask yourself, is what we see on the screens of worldwide EMPTY streets not like a movie!!?

It ain’t a movie, it is our reality.

Let’s unite and care for one another as we go out there and reopen.

My Lord and my Creator let me not put “me” first. That is after all what You have commanded. Let me, no matter what is happening to me, remind myself that I am serving another that may die from this virus. Not sure whom that person is, which makes it so much harder, but may I remind myself Lord that I am serving You my God first and foremost by my actions. Grant me patience and understanding so I bare no ill-will or anger blaming “him” or “her” for the great inconveniences that are happening. It is just simply happening and no man has found a weapon to defeat it, YET. I love and I thank You my Lord.