Sad Times
May 31, 2020

Usually my post here is a little bit of connecting and a little bit of marketing - letting you know what's coming up, what we're doing, and wishing you well. Today's post will be different. First, what we're doing about COVID-19: We have been closed since March 9 - the first week for Spring Break and ever since then because of COVID-19. Some of our groups have and will continue to meet virtually. Some have chosen to come back to our building, taking the precautions with which they feel comfortable. Some are not coming back yet as they do not feel comfortable doing so. As far as the office is concerned, when clients start to come back, we will have hand sanitizer available and will disinfect the surfaces needed in order to be safe. We continue to answer phone calls and emails and are looking forward to being able to see you again.

Now, for what is on my heart...our country is in deep trouble - not from a foreign enemy or global warming or wildfires or hurricanes. It is in deep trouble from us. The United States is supposed to be a country where our citizens can be free to live, raise their families, work hard, worship their God, and enjoy life free from the fear of someone killing them because their skin is a different color. As I write this, my heart is heavy. Growing up, I saw many people, black and white, doing and saying things that were terribly wrong – mean, disrespectful, hateful, threatening, hurtful, aggressive things. As I grew older and got to know more people from different backgrounds and cultures, I started questioning things I had been implicitly and explicitly taught all my life. The more I questioned the more I realized how wrong some of those things were. I changed my thoughts and perspectives and feelings because I learned those things were not true. They were thoughts and feeling based in ignorance and they did not make sense. I hoped that with time, others would become better informed, would change their old mindsets and perspectives as well, and we would stop looking back and start looking forward.

I have since come to the sad realization that time has not and is not going to do anything about this problem because the problem is hate. Hate of anyone who doesn’t look like me. Hate of anyone who doesn’t talk like me. Hate and fear are two of the strongest emotions humans have, and they usually travel as a pair. So we have to do business with the hate and fear in this world that causes a person to feel justified in killing another person in broad daylight while people stand and watch and do nothing. We have to do business with the hate and fear that causes one person to feel more entitled to live in America than another. We have to do business with the hearts of people so that hate has no place here anymore. Our only recourse, the only thing stronger than hate, is love. We need to join in love with our brothers and sisters who do not look like us, do not talk like us, do not live like us and take this country away from those whose hate is a growing cancer that is going to kill this country. We have a bigger problem to fight than COVID-19.

Nancy