Pandemics are weird. This is what I keep saying to myself as the world continues to change. As our summer camp open house goes virtual this week. As our Nature Preschool closes for the rest of the semester. As calendars are erased and major events get rescheduled. Pandemics are weird.

Pandemics are weird. That’s what I say when summer camp counselors ask exactly what this summer will look like. When parents and families are overwhelmed with screen content and all we want to do is give kids a chance to play outside. When we’re all united in keeping our kids healthy, even if that means unhappy.

Pandemics are weird. That’s all I can think when lives are lost and no one can go hold the ones who cry. When the ways we come together to mark important transitions just aren’t the same over Zoom. When hospital chaplains stand in doorways to pray over the sick. When our normal processes of grieving feel inaccessible and the living room looks the same and it feels like more should have changed. Pandemics are weird.

Pandemics are weird. That’s what I say to my loved ones whose voices I want to hear so much more often over video and phone calls. Pandemics are weird, so even if we have nothing to say, let’s chat again tomorrow.

Pandemics are weird. That’s what I say when the sun is shining and this Sunday is Easter and the flowers have bloomed. When the holiest moment in our Christian tradition is an empty tomb. An empty room feels just about right this year. Pandemics are weird.

Jocelyn Wildhack is our Camp, Events, and Forest Church Coordinator. She is soon to be ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).