Dear Annie: Making the ordinary extraordinary

Dear Annie: Just adding my opinion about coping in these difficult times. I don’t want to be identified, even by the area of the country I live in, because millions in our country are doing the same things to endure and triumph over our present hardships.

My husband has been suffering from cancer for the past four years, and we have come to terms with the expected outcome. I have several serious age-related health issues, so we are like many elderly in our country.

Here’s what we do every day:

We are kind to each other, regardless of the irritating things we both do.

We find things to laugh about in something we are reading or watching on TV, and we share those things throughout the day.

We each have a prayer life and spend part of the day in private devotions. We give God thanks over every meal, even if it’s just soup.

We “attend” our church services on livestreams on Facebook and YouTube.

We contact family and friends by phone or text or email.

We listen to and pray for the concerns of those family and friends. We share laughter with them.

We limit news encroachment to reading the newspaper in the morning and tuning in to one TV news program that we like to follow.

We each work on a hobby we like – for fun rather than feeling like we have to.

We try to get some exercise every day – mainly walking.

We don’t spend time thinking about “what-ifs” or speak them out loud.

We try to uplift those around us and ourselves in small ways because those small steps contribute to the larger journey, both personally and in community. – Just Ordinary Folks Making It Through Together.

Dear Ordinary Folks: In doing these daily activities with great love and intention, you are living an extraordinary life of gratitude. Connection to family, kindness, laughter, prayer, having fun and exercising are all wonderful suggestions to make the most of each moment.