Rude Awakening

It seems that I was meant to get up early this morning, for some reason. Shortly before 5am, while it was still dark, a ‘delightful’ little bird decided to perch on the laundry racks just outside our bedroom window and start singing, quite loudly. I did my best to ignore him, and had just started drifting back off to sleep when a jackhammer started tearing up the road at the intersection just outside our window. I just gave up and got up.

I was stunned to see that the number of coronavirus cases throughout the world had increased dramatically as we slept. Watching the numbers, it is easy to see that what happened in China has now broken out in many countries around the world. It’s a helpless feeling, knowing that people are suffering and there is very little you can do about it. I sometimes find my mind drifting back to decisions that I made years ago involving my career path. I often wonder what my life would look like had I pursued a career in medicine and virology. Might I have been able to help with the current outbreak in some way? I find myself wanting to study virology, even now. However, I try not to entertain such musings because I know, without a doubt, that God has brought me here.

Image result for pray coronavirus

Our day started as all others do, breakfast and then a walk around the school grounds. Recently, our walks have been somewhat hindered. We started feeding some of the cats on campus several weeks ago, and now they surround us when we go outside. There are about four or five that know where we live and wait outside of our house for us to come out. One of them even jumped up on our window ledge a few days ago. If we neglect to feed them, they will crisscross in our path to the point where we cannot walk anymore or just fall over trying to avoid from kicking them or stepping on them. If we leave a small kibble pile for each of them, we can walk unaccosted. 


Today, we also noticed a film crew from the local news at the school today too. They were interviewing some of the staff and filming the school facilities and grounds. I’m not sure what it was about, but it may be that the school will open soon or they were showing how classes are being conducted online. Given that we have heard nothing from the education office, the later seems more likely. It is becoming obvious that school will definitely not open this month.

For now, life on lockdown is continuing as it has for the past seven weeks. We are stocked up and healthy. We have plenty of time to prepare curriculum, read, work out, play with our cats, and pursue or own interests. In many ways, we are blessed. We are so grateful to have an island away from the storm, and we continue to pray for those who are caught in it.

“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.” —Charles H. Spurgeon

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