Alarms, creativity and hope!!!

Hello world,

So I would like to start of by correcting myself. I haven't spent a full month in quarantine yet. My bad! Today is actually day 28 of quarantine. So almost a month :)

I figured out a way to be more productive. Running my life by alarms. An alarm to get myself ready to wake up, an alarm to wake up, an alarm to do chores, an alarm to read...... You get the gist. And it works pretty well. The only problem is sleeping through the alarm.  But I figured out a way through that too. I just make it incredibly loud. I can't sleep through it. I know there are some people who can sleep through a fire though, and so those people definitely wouldn't benefit from this system I've adopted!

I know lots of people (including me) have talked up a storm about the need to stay productive right now. And there is a huge need. But I also want to stress the importance of having fun and being creative. Maybe for you that's keeping up a journal, writing a book, using TikTok, getting together with friends online, baking banana bread or watching all your favorite shows all over again. Just make sure that while you're getting loads of work done right now, you're also enjoying yourself. We don't know when this pandemic will get out of our lives, but while it's still here, let's enjoy the things we can only find time to do now. And let's do them before the world resumes and we forget to say hi to each other again.

All in all, let's be intentional with this down-time. Attend your online classes, read if you still have an exam coming up, work if you can. But even in the midst of all this uncertainty, pray hard, dream big and love strong. Our peace, hope and joy are found in God. The earth didn't give them to us and so we shouldn't let the earth or its situations take them away.

And finally, you are not what you feel. And so even though right now and in general you might be feeling hopeless, you are not hopeless. There's always hope to be found if you look hard enough and in the right places. So let's look to God people! He's the only thing that hasn't been affected by this virus. That says something.

Hope y'all are washing your hands and praying for the frontliners  and the world in general. Staying safe alone won't chase this virus away (even though it's incredibly important!). We need to call on the one person who has power over this pandemic. Jesus!

Dera.

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