SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — We have entered a new spring.
For most of us spring is always welcome, bringing us out of the winters of our discontent. But this season is different as we seem to have distanced ourselves from the discontent of the coronavirus two springs ago.
The virus has not totally disappeared, but we are moving toward better times. At least where the COVID-19 pandemic is concerned. I am thankful for that.
We are not out of the woods. Not fully… yet.
But literally we are back in the woods strolling into a new period. That's reason for season celebration
You will remember how that first spring of the pandemic rocked us.
- Mounting death toll.
- Overworked medical people.
- Empty store shelves.
- Mandatory masks (although still a good idea)
- The huge push for social distancing (also still a good idea).
- The around-the-clock push for a life-saving vaccine.
A moving picture of maybe a long time ago that seems like yesterday.
In the spring of 2020, I offered a commentary of the way our lives were unfolding then and my personal need to openly and fully celebrate spring's little things.
It went like this: "We are living nervously because this Covid-19 crisis has rocked us. I suppose in a way, we are holding our collective breaths hoping to inhale again with mental comfort. As I work, mostly from inside my home, I've begun to take more notice of the little things outside. Something to hold onto."
It was a time where my highlight of the day would be a walk through the neighborhood, social distancing, but celebrating small things.
In the days before the vaccine, I realized those little things were really the big things. I better understood what I always knew: The little things are always the big things.
Which brings me to this: The Covid-19 pandemic changed us and showed us perhaps how to think differently.
Reminding us what we maybe always knew. During pandemic’s hardest hits, we became more reflective, more aware of each other.
More embracing of important little things.
Now stepping away from the rougher times, I hope we all remember what we learned.
We are easing back to shoulder-to-shoulder and moving back into old routines. That's good.
But let's recall what we learned of ourselves during the pandemic about the little things.
There are some lessons to which we could continue to hold.
More from Leon Bibb:
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- Black History Month in Ohio: Honoring 3News' Leon Bibb