This post was written by Dianna Teusch, chaplain, Parkview Health.
This past Saturday morning, I left as usual for a shift at Parkview Randallia. I work there as a chaplain. (“Work” is not a great word to describe what we do at Parkview. For healthcare workers, especially my fellow chaplains, what we do is a calling and a privilege.) As I backed my car onto the road, I glimpsed bright purple flowers at the corner of my home. It was such a joy to see those hyacinths after winter. Especially this winter.
Last year those flowers blossomed around the time our world came to a grinding halt. All of spring 2020 they waved good-bye as I left and greeted me as I came home from the hospital; Bright spots, in the deep shadows of a looming virus. Constants in a world that I no longer recognized. It was as if God, the best florist ever, sent me flowers each day. Not just me, all of us. Each day, He sent hope and life in those fragile blooms.
In March 2020 COVID-19 changed the world. Lives derailed and readjusted. Some lives left us. Old ways died. People I thought I knew, I found out I didn’t. Crisis does that, reveals who we really are. Most people astounded me with their resiliency. So many heroes. Many faced devastating sickness and loss. Some are still trying to recover. Some are still experiencing the devastating effects of the virus. After such fear, sickness, loss, confusion, chaos and yes, some madness, there is still hope.
Hope blooms even in a world too stunned to recognize it. Hope is in the medical staff’s tired faces returning to work every day. Hope’s fragrance is in the prayers of the EVS workers as they clean and disinfect. Hope echoes in the chaplains’ footsteps as they walk the hospital halls. Hope shines in a newborn’s cry. Hope rides in a wheelchair with the recovered patient leaving the hospital. Hope increases as the COVID patient count decreases. Hope speaks in all the sad and beautiful stories of love, courage, resilience and persistence that were written into all our lives.
Last year’s petals are not here. It’s the 2021 spring flowers that greet me now. Same bulb, different bloom. They are different. And so are we. As they rise to meet the sun, hope rises. Faith rises. No, the world is not the same. I am not the same. You are not the same. COVID still exists. But it did not destroy us. And it will not.
May the beauty of spring flowers remind you that change is hard, but it will not destroy us. COVID is horrible, but it cannot destroy hope. Life is different, but there is still life. And where there is life, there is always hope.
