By Ralphine Major

2020 is bringing us a different kind of spring.  As if cancellation of basketball’s March Madness was not enough disruption, more events are canceled or postponed due to the Coronavirus.  For now, no Smokies games or college baseball games are scheduled.  It is possible there will be no high school proms or field day events.  This is the first spring that restaurants have been closed to dine-in customers.  Another first—the summer Olympic games have been postponed until next year.

The closest comparison I can recall from the sixties school days was the Cuban Missile Crisis.  School was dismissed early for the drill.  School buses ran shorter routes by letting students off on the main highways.  I remember several of us walked home down our rural road.  Recent talks with parents about the creative ways they are teaching students during this stay-at-home period took me back to the simpler days of life on our farm.  The pace seemed much slower back then.  Days were spent riding bicycles across the creek and all over the pastures, uphill and down.  After school, it was time to bring in the cows from the field for the evening milking.  Chores on the farm took place nearly 24/7.  We planted gardens, watched them grow, and canned the vegetables.  We went to church, school, and school events.  Except for groceries, there was not much need to go shopping.  School clothes did not need to be bought until the end of summer.

Spring—the season when everything comes to life.  Flowers bloom, grass grows, and baby animals are born.  All things seem new.  It is sad this year that so much has changed.  “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  II Corinthians 4:17-18 (NIV).  Be blessed.  Be safe.  Be healthy.