FREEDOM TO OVERCOME
Deep in thought while walking our dog, I didn’t see the beagle dashing towards us until it was a few feet away.
As our dog tugged on her harness, I yelled. “Layla NO!” And tightened my grip on our 6-year-old dog’s lead. She barely moved. Eight months ago my husband fell from running after her. The impact broke his femur and it took months for him to heal.
My neighbor calmly walked up behind the smaller dog and scooped her up.
“I’m sorry.” She apologized. “We don’t usually have her out without a leash.”
At that point my panic seemed like an overreaction. Laughing, I looked at Layla who stood calmly next to me with her tail wagging.
I explained that our dog didn’t know her own size, and I was picturing Layla unintentionally hurting her little pup.
Thankfully, she also laughed and we parted amicably.
All this to say this experience reminds me of the way our nation has faced a virus. Mass hysteria, masking and division over a virus that is in part an unknown. Yes, I have had friends deal with heavy loss from this disease.
My concern is for them, and my prayers are with them.
Why is it that we can come together over a patient who is battling cancer, but not over a patient with Covid?
Some cancer patients like me used chemotherapy while others use an alternative treatment plan including boosting their immune system. Either way most people respond with compassion.
We have taken a serious threat to our people and allowed it to divide us. Let us come together with the freedom to treat the virus as we see fit for our own lives
Our nation has been built on our rights to be free. The freedom we enjoy cost the lives of many men and women to uphold. Let us not hold it lightly. Let us recognize when it is being threatened and do our part to uphold it.
In the new year we can continue to play a part in the direction our country will go. Let’s get involved and make a difference in any way we can.
“The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing...Be not intimidated, therefore, by any terrors, from publishing with the utmost freedom, whatever can be warranted by the laws of your country.”
