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Good afternoon, Chaverim,  

As I looked for a quote to share today, this one struck a chord…  

Here is today’s Gratitude Thought in the Middle of a Pandemic:


“Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness;
and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another,
and not laying accusations one against another;
but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.”

Isaac Pennington

Here we are, in the waning weeks of 2021, still solidly in the middle of the pandemic that we thought would be long gone by now.  Next month will be two years since we first heard whispers that there was an outbreak of a new virus in China…for us January 2020 was also the last time we have travelled anywhere except by car.  With more than 5 million souls gone, close to 800,000 of whom were our fellow Americans, and yet another new variant on its way…it is all quite unbelievable and undeniably frightening.  And, while we have come a long way from where we were in early 2020, it seems as if, in our anger and fear, some of us may have forgotten one of the truths that this pandemic has put in very sharp relief…the truth of how connected we all are and how the health of each of us impacts the rest of us.    


Human nature being what it is, when we are fatigued, stressed, sad and frightened and just plain DONE, it is incredibly easy to fall into anger, resentment, accusation and blame.  So, this quote, which reminds us of the truth of our connection to one another and of our responsibility to care for one another, to forgive one another, to refrain from accusing one another, and of our obligation to pray for each other and offer each other a tender helping hand, struck me as a very timely and important reminder that we can (and, I believe, must) bring our best selves to this “Covid party”.  


Because, it seems clearer every day that Covid 19, and its current and future progeny and relations, are here to stay and we are going to have to learn to “live with” them as best we can.  It seems equally clear that anger,  name calling and shaming and blaming of people who are behaving in ways we may believe to be foolish and/or dangerous, does not, and will not, help anyone…neither those who are angry nor those who are the object of that anger.  As this quote makes clear, our best hope is to bear with, forgive, pray for, and help one another as we struggle together to stay connected and to live lives filled with  “love, and peace, and tenderness”.  

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukah to all, 
Marci