Coping With the Pandemic

The Big Book was written in the late 1930s when Germany’s land grabs foretold the upcoming World War. That’s the obvious reference for “We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of nations, nor do we carry the world’s troubles on our shoulders.” (pg. 132).

Well, war broke out and by mid-1942 many of our members were scattered in training camps throughout our country. Mostly as an effort to keep in touch with these folks, Cleveland’s Central Committee started a newsletter named the Central Bulletin, published and edited by local printer, Harry D. An article in the February 1943 issue addressed coping with those troubled times. It’s as true now as it was then:

Just A Day At A Time

An anxious patient, lying on her sickbed, turned to her doctor and asked: “Doctor, how long shall I have to lie here and suffer” – “Just a day at a time,” replied the kind and wise physician.

Just a day at a time! What a wonderful philosophy of life. Just a day at a time the new year will come to us with its new burdens, its new duties, its hopes, and its fears.

As we stand today upon the threshold of 1943, a year which if it continued the pace of 1942 will record great changes in the history of humanity in the history of our country and in the history of us as families and as individuals, let us not be depressed, despondent or discouraged by the overwhelming greatness of its possibilities, but let us rather find comfort and strength in the fact that God has cut the coming year into smaller pieces, and we shall have to live it “just a day at a time.”

And as our days, so shall our strength be. We have God’s own assurance that each day throughout the coming year, yes, each day throughout all coming years, will find us equipped with that amount of strength that will be necessary to bear its burden, to endure its trial, to fight its battle through.

I’m not afraid of tomorrow for I’ve seen yesterday and I live and love today.

By Bob M.