We All Need Encouragement!

A discouraged young mother of two preschool sons recently exclaimed: If one more thing goes wrong today, I'm putting up the Christmas tree! (In her place, I'd probably be saying:... I'm heading for Dairy Queen!) But I know where she's coming from! At times we all need encouragement!

Early in the pandemic, I was feeling discouraged and confused. I'd hear daily numbers of new cases and deaths in the news, but it was all too much! I needed a system to help me see where things were going.

So I started to keep track of the number of new COVID cases in Ontario and the daily number of deaths. Later I started to calculate our 7-day average of new cases... Averages tend to fluctuate less and they indicate a trend.

I remember hoping and praying that the numbers would diminish to less than 100 a day... When that happened, my new goal was less than 50...

Keeping track - especially when things are improving - has helped me focus on hope.