As I sit here and think about what message I should send out this month, I am thinking about what life was supposed to be like before we found ourselves in these unimaginable circumstances. First of all, I hope this note finds you and your family safe and healthy at this challenging time in all of our lives. I hope you were able to, in some way, celebrate Syttende Mai flying your Norwegian Flag and shouting Hipp Hipp Hurra.
I know, like many of you, I would have been traveling to Jacksonville, FL this month for a great Third District Convention and Meeting. Maybe we would be staying on a bit longer to see some of the fine sights in the area. Enjoying getting together with friends we haven’t seen in a while. Making policy to move the Third District forward. Now, that is a trip we will have to take at another time.
Just like so many of you who would have traveled for fun and family over these spring holidays and instead have used phones and social media to keep in touch with family and friends, it has been an eye-opening learning experience. I miss visiting with my family and friends tremendously but am grateful for all the ways we have to stay connected to one another today.
Suddenly we’re sitting at home grappling with what’s going on around us and our days stretch endlessly before us. What to do? Remember the SON website offers a vast array of learning and fun. Some skills don’t take a lot of time to learn. Why not try something new? Have you worked on a ZOOM meeting? Have you been on a conference call? Are you sharing emails to discuss lodge business? We are a people who no matter the interesting times we are in, we will find a way to navigate them
Despite the discrepancies happening around the country, I don’t think we are out of the woods yet. I think we still need to hunker down and work together to ensure that more lives are not lost through this pandemic, while we figure out how we will return to our lodge meetings and what those meetings will look like in the near future.
Thank you all for your encouraging words to me and the board, your support, and understanding. And thanks for treating one another like a neighbor in our Tremendous Third! I hope we still have our sense of humor after all of this is over. Like why the Norwegian Navy has barcodes on the sides of their ships? Because when they return to port they can scan-de-navy-in. All right I’ll Finnish. It’s time for a Danish and some Swede tea.
Stay safe! Take Care! Kathy