Everyday I watch the media paint a picture of COVID-19. As I listen to the horrible stories of what the virus has done all over the world, the one thing I haven’t heard is a message of hope. 

One lesson my life has taught me is that the human race is incredibly resilient and that during crisis the human spirit shines. We adapt and find new ways to move forward. In the midst of all the darkness, we find a way to create light. 

I believe our current situation is no different, we are already finding ways to deal with our confinement. There is a new normal, but maybe some of this is taking us back to an older normal. A time when families did more things together as a unit. A time when we learned and understood more about each other, instead of going in different directions and being glued to our cell phones. 

As the weeks crawl by during quarantine, we are finding ways to cope. Maybe we are taking time to contact friends that we haven't talked to in a long time and reconnecting. Maybe it's just having quiet time with no noise and no rush, being able to take a moment for yourself just to be.

As I read the news, I don't read about hope or new beginnings and I feel the heaviness of the world. Although times are tough, I believe some great things will come from this - but we will have to look for them. It will be a chance to return to a time when caring for each other was far more important than taking care of ourselves. We will see that finding ways to be together is better than the company of our personal device and look up and want to see the world and people around us again. As the news sells us on the worst possible thing, there is also positive that doesn’t always make the headlines. It may not be as exciting or horrifying, so the news deems these stories unsellable when the truth is we still need symbols of hope. 

I don't want anyone to think that I don't understand the gravity and trauma of what is going on, because I do. This has separated me from all the people I care about. I also know people are losing loved ones, and people are having to make incredibly hard decisions, sometimes life or death decisions, everyday if not every hour. 

As we are faced with this collective hardship, I believe we have to find some place that gives us hope. Like the seasons when in the spring new life starts - things grow and flowers bloom. I hope we can find some spring right now in the midst of all of this and as spring turns to summer, blossom into something beautiful. 

In Health,

Bill Burnett