We’re hearing a lot these days about heroes.  Every bit of it is true.  On a regular day they do their ordinary work.  These days their work has become extraordinary.  Our sense of gratitude is warranted.  Without them our society would cease to function.

We can be heroes.

Many of us are feeling hopeless and helpless.  We’re frustrated and fearful.  We might even feel guilty.

How can sheltering actually be doing any good? we ask ourselves.

But by now we know.  We know how to take care. And when we say “take care” there’s a bit more substance behind our words.  We care more, we mean it more.

We have taken shelter where, and how, and if, we can.  And we hope that by giving up graduations, weddings, funerals, worship, school, work and so many other good things, we can somehow give our heroes a chance to manage better, even as their work becomes riskier.

Taking shelter is an essential human need.  Like food, water, air, and clothing it is very hard to live without.  Without shelter we lose some of our humanity.  But when we are able to shelter in the place we call Home, it restores us and recharges us for whatever we do next. 

If we are fortunate, it is good for us to be grateful for security and comfort and also for our community.  It is because we can take shelter, that we can also take care of one another.  We can be charitable and kind, we can entertain and provide for each other.

Look for ways to look after one another, even the small ways.  Then, do it, without expectation of return.  Do it to restore and recharge your community, it will also restore and recharge you.

You are a hero, too.