Dear Family and Friends,
Here we are in the year 2020 being impacted by a pandemic known as the coronavirus, or COVID-19. I’m not sure about you, but it is something I will never forget as long as I live. It’s something I thought could only happen in a movie like Outbreak or in the past century, like when the Spanish Flu killed millions in 1918, but not now in 2020. So how is this happening? We seem to have all the advances in healthcare and technology to fight this. So what happened? I just kept asking myself that question when I first heard people were dying in China several months ago.
Everyone around the world has been quarantined from China to Iran to Italy to Spain and now the U.S., a superpower, has experienced the highest number of deaths in the shortest amount of time. So what does this tell us? I believe it tells us that no matter how much money we have, what country we’re from, how old we are, or what color our skin is, we are not excluded from this pandemic.
For years we have been warned of such a coming event but we continued to ignore the possibilities and assumed if there was an outbreak, it would be trivial, and easily suppressed. There are still people in the world who do not think this is a big deal. How come?
We have been witnesses of continuing ongoing disasters, like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the devastating Hurricane Maria that devastated my beautiful country of Puerto Rico in 2017, to the fires of Australia that killed innocent animals and plants, even driving many of them into extinction.
I ask everyone to please wake up! We need plants to breathe, and the world does not just belong to humans but to all living beings. Like us they have a purpose on this earth and it is our responsibility to make sure they can fulfill their purposes as well.
We as humans blame it on el nino or global warming but never consider that this could be a message from the universe. In lieu of witnessing these events, many people believe COVID19 is something that will just go away and we will soon go back to our allegedly normal lives.
I hope we are free from COVID’s grip soon, but I hope the experience will have changed our lives for the better, rather than returning to things the way they were before the virus hit. I’m not sure about you, but I have come to a different conclusion from these devastating events where thousands of lives have been lost.
Yes, I will continue to be the go getter I have always been but now, with a different purpose. A purpose to touch the lives of everyone and most importantly, to enjoy the ride. I choose to let go of any anger towards anyone I have hurt on my path and look at those experiences as opportunities for growth and to become a better human being. I choose to love, to forgive and to ask for forgiveness.
I don’t know about you but this experience has taught me to be more sensitive to people, to people’s needs, and to truly prioritize the things that are important in life, which is love and gratitude. Instead of placing any energy on fear, I thank the universe for growth and for opening my heart to others, to forgive, and most of all, to love.
Until we can see each other, stay safe, stay well, and know that I love you.
-Jeannette Lurdez Collazo