What Else Can I Do?

On a snowy February morning my Dad had a massive heart attack and died very suddenly. Less than a year later, also in February, my sister (a young mother of only 33) passed away. Our entire family was devastated, but no one more than my mom. 

She always said that losing her husband was hard, but that it was hard in a way you could deal with. Many of her friends had lost their spouses. She grieved his passing, but was getting "back to normal" just as my sister's death occurred.

One doesn't expect to lose a daughter. It's not normal or natural. Kris was a mother of two young children. She had so much of life left to experience. It was really easy to be angry. This wasn't fair. It wasn't right.

That summer I was sitting quietly with Mom in her kitchen, sharing a cup of coffee, and probably ice cream. I asked her "How are you doing?"

And this is when she told me one of the biggest secrets of living a life of hope. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and she said "I just keep going on. I wake up every day and I do what has to be done. And every day, I've lived another day. What else can I do?"

What else can I do?

I've thought about that question a lot. So many people have survived through enormous tragedy. People living through the uprising in Rwanda. Men, women and children who survived years in prison camps in Auschwitz. Soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I read these stories of suffering and horror I am shocked at what the human spirit can endure. 

What do these people do? They just keep going on. Waking up every day, doing what has to be done. What else can they do?

And right now we're in this incredibly beautiful and joyous time of year, looking forward to Thanksgiving feasts, family get-togethers, holiday parties, Christmas concerts, and the birth of our Savior. 

And everything is different.

We're forgoing our gatherings, canceling our travel plans, and, if you're like me, feeling a weight of sadness because it's all so different. But we can do something: we can get up every day and do what needs to be done. We just keep going. 

If people who have suffered enormous losses can do it, we can too. And maybe, just maybe, we will find new little things to find joy in. A game with our family. A Zoom call. Decorating the house. A letter from an old friend. A Christmas carol on the radio. A Hallmark movie. Hearing once again the story of the birth of the baby Jesus. There is so much to celebrate in this wondrous season. And besides - 

What else can we do?