20 January 2021

Little did we know a year ago today when the first known case of COVID-19 was reported in the U.S. that we were heading for a year of recurring fear, illness, death, isolation, political unrest and economic hardship. By now almost everyone knows someone who tested positive. Too many know someone who died.

Yesterday the U.S. COVID-19 death toll reached 400,000. To put this in perspective, that’s the entire population of Tulsa, Oklahoma or Tampa, Florida or 1/3 of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

For a year we have been grieving alone or in small groups. Yesterday for the first time we mourned as a nation for the lives lost to the coronavirus. A nurse from Livonia, Michigan who cares for COVID patients sang Amazing Grace as a tribute to those we’ve lost.

Michigan nurse Lori Marie Key, who went viral singing ‘Amazing Grace’ at work, reprises the song at the national COVID-19 memorial ceremony pic.twitter.com/8OtCaNU5mw

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 19, 2021

We’ve been going through a very dark time but we can work together for a brighter future.

Today let us take solace in the beauty of nature and begin to hope.

(video by Terje Sorgjerd at El Teide Mountain, Spain, April 2011; music by Ludovico Einaudi)