It was a challenge this week to find these words because we, too, are struggling.
Each one of us in this newsroom took a hit this week, and it's hard to move forward when it feels like you'll never get ahead. You'll forever be stuck in some Groundhog Day loop of reliving the same day again and again. Wake up, worry, work, maybe eat something, worry and sleep.
It is hard to find hope when always at the back of your mind anxiety lurks, trying to pull you to despair. Anxiety over if you'll still have a job tomorrow. Anxiety that you'll get sick or you'll pass the virus to someone who can't fight it. Anxiety that this isolation will drag on. Anxiety that all those deferred payments will eventually come due and you may never financially recover.
However, it is at these times that the simplest acts of kindness mean the most. The neighbour who you've only spoken to a handful of times offering to pick up your groceries. The child that tapes a hand-drawn rainbow to their window and patiently waits to wave at those who pass by. The husband/wife who checks in to let their partner, who is at home with the kids while trying to work and feeling completely overwhelmed, know they are not alone.
And that's just it. We aren't in this alone. Airdrie has always been a community that rushes to the aid when its members are hurting. We see that now through the neighbourhood window walks and Coun. Petrow in her pink unicorn suit, the mayor's call to connect by switching on your lights (page 4) or the patrons of local businesses who are choosing to shop local.
There is no crystal ball that will tell us what comes next, but finding that glimmer of goodness in each day makes getting out of bed a touch easier. And we keep going.
