It is 5 pm, and I just got back from walking my dog. We usually take walks at night, after dinner and, often, an evening meeting at church. There are no evening meetings at church these days, and our town has an 8 pm curfew. I do not know if that applies to walking your dog, but I figured I would err on the side of caution.

It was actually a pleasant experience, walking my dog in the daylight. I got to see folks from the neighborhood. I do not know if there are usually this many people out in our neighborhood walking their dogs at 5 pm, but it was a really nice. Of course, we all kept our distance from each other, something that my dog does not handle well, but we waved to each other as we passed, greeted each other, said something about how beautiful this evening was. There were families out, with Mom and Dad home, not still in the city, taking the late train. As I said, it was a pleasant experience.

I know these are scary times. We do not know what is going to happen next as we try to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. At some level of my mind, I know many of us will end up sick, and some of us will not make it through this alive. I am not downplaying the seriousness of our situation, but I am grateful for a beautiful evening to walk my dog, to see my neighbors, families together in unusual ways. It gave me hope that we can rise to this occasion in such a way that, in years to come, people will look back at this moment and be amazed at what we did.

Now, since I’ve been touching a keyboard, I am off to wash my hands again…..

–Pastor Don Steele