Hi Everyone,

Is it only me or does anyone else feel like the past 7 weeks have been like being lost in a fog. What day is it? What did I do today at work or at home? How can you plan to do anything when you can’t do anything? Being lost in a fog makes it difficult to see what’s ahead of us. Like the picture below from a morning walk, the fog makes it difficult to see. We know something is ahead of us, but what is it?

A friend recounted what his mother shared with him when he was a small boy and they were lost if a heavy fog;

Don’t be afraid

You have to let the fog touch you

It keeps you alert and aware                         

You can’t see anything, so you have to listen

and, make sure you reach out to the person next to you.

Well, we now need to keep moving, into this fog that continues to envelope us. This guidance given to a young child experiencing being caught up in a fog is helpful. Embrace it, listen, be aware and reach out, are all things we need to during this pandemic.

The fog makes it difficult to make out where and what the picture above is. It can be difficult to understand where we are and what we need to do now. The daily news of the growing death toll, the millions of unemployed people, companies on the verge of going out of business, will school’s ever reopen, the list of uncertainties is long. This can be paralyzing and is daunting. We need to keep moving through this fog and doing what we must to continue the mission of Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services.

The next weeks and months are going to present us with many challenges to overcome to continue this mission. The path we are on is not one that will take us back to the time before COVID-19 but to a new place, post Covid-19. I don’t know what that new place will look like or what it we require us to do but I am confident that if we follow the mother’s advice to her son above we will meet the challenges ahead. Then the fog will lift and we will see clearly our future, just like the picture below that lets us know what had been lost in the fog-shrouded picture above.

 

 

In the coming days and weeks, I along with all of you will be taking steps forward that will help to clear the fog that clouds the picture. Both science and the Holy Spirit will be our guide. “Employee safety” and “a controlled work environment” will be essential ingredients to this clarity. We will work hard to communicate this to you and to provide everyone the confidence that we will be successful in this new world we will work in. As we all know, families continue to suffer in the isolation of burying their loved ones. We will work very diligently to communicate to them the ways that we safely continue to support them, and work to provide the consolation and pastoral support that is so desperately needed.

We are all leaders when it comes to serving families. I am reminded of a great leader, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led us through the Great Depression and World War II,

“there are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Let us continue to hold one another in our prayers. May you have a restful weekend.

With blessings and gratitude,
Robert