Isolated But Not Alone

If “Plan A” doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters. Here’s Campus Ministry’s plans for thriving in the pandemic:

• B - Be grateful for your health, for each breath you draw, for each step you take. Be mindful that we will once again face each other without masks, embracing, remembering, and living life to the fullest! ~John Scarano
   
• C - Courage is something we all need amid the duration of the Coronavirus. It’s daunting to plan one’s future. Daunting to plan a wedding. Daunting to launch a relationship—no matter how casual. Our current crisis asks each of us to put a brave foot forward. To take the initiative—and advance, even if we are unsure of the outcome. What courage will emerge in us during the Pandemic? What greater inner gift or gifts will emerge to equip us to step forward? Trust that, one way or another, you will discover the way forward. ~Fr. Bernie McAniff
   
• D - Do it scared. For me, when my plans fall apart, fear finds a way to creep into my head. Fear finds thousands of ways to convince me that I should just give up. But my prayer always finds a way to make me strong and fearless. As the semester of uncertainty unfolds, let's lean into prayer together and so we can find the strength to lead others even when we are scared. Through it all--God is with us. ~Jurell Sison
   
• E - Empathize with the experiences of individuals who are differently abled due to physical or mental illness and reflect on any able-bodied privilege. Seek out the stories of individuals whose everyday, often lifelong experience might in some way resemble a small piece of our current COVID experience marked by limitations on what we can do and where we can go. How do we continue including individuals with disabilities when our society’s majority situation returns to “normal”? ~Theresa Schmidt
   
• F - Feeling gratitude. Take 5 minutes at the start of your day to only focus on gratitude.  COVID has limited our lives and cut off important social bonds, leaving us feeling lonely or empty. At the same time, we have so much. When I begin my day with gratitude, it changes the entire course of the day! ~Anne McGinness
   
• G - Growth is here. You are growing. We are growing. As uncomfortable as these months have been, we are truly growing new fruit. You and I were meant for growth. Let's keep pushing forward with patient trust and let's give our Lord the benefit of believing that his Hand is leading us. ~Mark Grabowski
   
• H - Hope can be lived out, not just something that we dream about. Try to think of a concrete thing that you can do which reflects your hope - hope for yourself, your community, or even people that you don't even know personally. While there are many things we cannot do right now, there are beautiful ways that we can live out and be the hope that we desperately need in our world, for ourselves, and those around us. ~Kathleen Sardon
   
• I - Is coming soon!
   
• J - Just be. Lockdowns, shutdowns, and quarantines have taken away a lot of the things that we enjoy. Sometimes, having so much less to do can make it difficult to just sit with ourselves. This is the challenge and opportunity. Who am I when I'm not doing the things I love? Who am I when I'm not achieving? Who am I to God? It's OK to just be. We can begin to discover our fundamental worth when we stop doing and just be for a little while. ~Brian Hohmeier