Pray for the world (and keep yourselves and your loved ones safe)

Since this is my only internet platform, I figured I would just use it to share my thoughts on what’s going on in our world. Obviously it’s a pretty bleak time. Hard to imagine any segment of our global community whose daily lives had not been affected by this. When I think about our friends in China, Italy, Spain, and Brazil, I’m immediately filled with dread both over what they are going through and what might be yet to come for us in this country. There are those who feel the entire situation is overblown, and others who think that we continue to underestimate this virus. But regardless which side of the argument you’re on, there is one glaring, undisputed, fact. PEOPLE_ARE_DYING! And that is something that’s impossible to ignore. However you might feel about the state of the world we’re living in, there is one common, over riding, objective. We must all do everything we can to protect those we love. My mother is 84 years old. Many of you know that she has been hospitalized twice in the past 4 years, both instances being near death experiences. These days, I worry as much about infecting her as I do taking care of her. How can I do one without accidentally doing the other? And I imagine I’m not the only one who is in this type of situation. So yes, we might hate having to change our lives and our lifestyles. But we have to do it. We have to follow the medical guidelines and protocols. Because the alternative scenario is just too awful to contemplate. If washing my hands can save my mother’s life, I’ll wash my hands in bleach if I have to. I hope and pray that all of you are taking every possible precaution to stay safe. It won’t just save you and your loved ones, it may end up saving us all.

On a more positive note, I just wanted to say how happy I am to see our CAF members continuing to post their new artwork. There’s not much to get excited about these days, so we have to take joy from any source of comfort that presents itself. I’ve seen some amazing pieces added to the site in the past weeks and months. When you consider that almost everything you see and hear these days is sad or horrific, anything that can shine a little light on our lives is more than welcome. So keep posting and keep sharing all that beautiful artwork. And if you don’t have any art to update, just browse through CAF and leave some nice comments. Right now, just doing something to make someone else feel a little better has never been more meaningful.

Stay safe everyone!