“What is normal?”
Our Premier in Alberta removed a few Covid restrictions yesterday with a three stage plan to get back to “normal”, after living two years in a pandemic emergency state.
It’s been a long haul. I still have a lingering cough after my recent bout with the Omicron strain. My son and five year old grandson also tested positive a week ago, and it was a non-event for them. When I asked my grandson how he was feeling he said, “I feel fine. I just have Covid.”
Perhaps I just got hit harder with it due to age, and compromised immunity. Being fully vaccinated likely prevented my being hospitalized, at least that is what I tell myself. Who knows?
Two years into this pandemic and I am no closer understanding the science of this weird virus. It changes daily it seems. I’m sure medical professionals and virologists will be dissecting all the data for years to come. I’m just done with it.
I’m not alone.
The “Freedom Convoy” of long haul truckers protesting Covid mandates assembling in the west and driving to our nation’s capital in Ottawa, is in its second week of protesting there. Organizers probably had all good intentions to start, but their original message was lost when a few trouble makers joined the protest with their own agendas. I was heartbroken to see the Terry Fox statue and the War Memorial desecrated by ignorant protestors. Vandalism, harassment of health care workers, constant noise of big rigs honking their horns, left me disgusted. This is no longer a “peaceful protest”. It is hooliganism at its worst. I just cannot support it.
Here in Alberta, truckers block highways preventing cross-border traffic from moving. I listened to an interview with one of the protesting truckers at the Coutts border and he expressed the need for us to “ just get back to normal” and adamantly stated that ending all government imposed Covid mandates was the best way to do that. How I wish that were true! I understand the frustration of adhering to the governmental rules placed on us to combat the spread of Covid, but all I see now is deep fissures of discontent that have been festering for years before Covid mandates were ever imposed. Canadians are divided as never before. I want to get back to normal, but what is “normal”?
My youngest grandbaby born in 2020, has never experienced life without masks. He’s had to take several Covid rapid tests in his young life. All my grandchildren have experienced isolation, lockdowns, and inability to play with friends or visit family for long stretches of time. I applaud their parents for trying to keep their routines and activities as “normal” as possible in spite of the reoccurring upsets over these past two years. Covid is a part of their vocabulary. Normal for them has been anything but normal compared to life before Covid. I think they have adapted better than I have!
I have spent a concerted amount of time praying for our Nation, the leaders, healthcare workers, family and friends who have been impacted by this pandemic. It’s important to understand that though restrictions may lift, the season of Covid is not over. We will live with this virus and the ramifications that goes with it for life. I pray we will not regret decisions made over these two years, and we will be able to embrace this new normal living in the shadow of Covid.
That said, I take comfort knowing that there are better times ahead. As a believer in Christ, my future is secure. We may live in uncertain times, but my hope is not found in governmental mandates, or vaccinations, or any human resources this world may offer. God promises that He will make all things new. (Revelation 21:1-5). He will solve all world problems, including giving us a normalcy we’ve never experienced before. We will never experience sickness again. (Isaiah 25:7-9). Contentment and well-being (Isaiah 65:17-25), as well as peace (John 14:27) will be our eternal normal.
While we wait patiently for this fulfillment of Scripture, let us stay unified as brothers and sisters in Christ to love like Jesus, live like Jesus, and change our world!*
Lynn Dove's Journey Thoughts 
I believe the impression we have on the truckers convoy depends on who is delivering the message. There is video of the protesters cleaning up The Terry Fox statue and the War Memorial the day after there was this desecration, which in the case of Terry Fox was a cap, a couple flags and a sign, all easily removed. Nothing was toppled, a fate that was commonplace in the not so distant past. There is video of the truckers bagging garbage, feeding the homeless, shovelling snow off the war memorial (and laying flowers), and shovelling the sidewalks and the streets.
There may in fact have been a few acts of ‘hooliganism’, but a protest always attracts some outsiders who do not represent the morals and values of the majority of people attending. Worse, in my opinion, is the response of the Prime Minister and the mainstream media who have denigrated the truckers based on the actions of a few bad actors and have made no attempt to actually go to the protest and see for themselves what is going on.
Worst of all is a Prime Minister who cannot put his ego on the shelf and then act like a responsible statesman, meet with the Convoy’s organizers and lawyers, and hammer out a compromise.