The Second Gaze - Celebrate

There’s a lot that I can share about celebrate. The most obvious is some great news for my kids yesterday that I shared with family and friends. But I am also very aware of where we were a year ago. Everything shutting down. Fears of transmissibility. Stocking up on supplies.

And now a year later, I celebrate that I got my first vaccine shot last Sunday and my second is coming up in a few weeks. My wife has also received her first dose. My parents have received both. Many in the congregation I serve have received their full course. I celebrate the work of researchers, scientists, health care workers, and the people who were willing to be test subjects for the safety of the vaccines. I celebrate the feeling that we are turning to a new and hopeful stage of the pandemic. As I write this I’ve been seeing the signs of Spring and new life emerging and it just feels like hope.

But in the midst I grieve for those whose lives were ended or forever changed before the vaccines became available. It isn’t necessarily survivors guilt but simply grieving all that has been lost over the last year for all in different measures.