Finding grace living through this pandemic

How sweet the sound. It has been two months since the schools closed. Two months since the chrysalis started to close around our homes and our communities. Two months since we retreated behind doors and pulled masks to separate ourselves from the coronavi

It has been two months since we retreated behind doors to separate ourselves from the coronavirus pandemic.

And now we are finally hearing the siren song of relief. The southwest region will become the second portion of the state to move from the red of the strictest lockdown to the yellow of a more moderate restriction on Friday.

That does not mean that we are safe. It means that we are safer.

It does not mean that we can break free. It means that we can be freer.

It also demands that we acknowledge how we got here.

We did not get through two months in suspended animation. There was no remote control that froze people in place on March 13 and picks up again Friday like nothing has happened.

People got sick. While some of the almost 60,000 Pennsylvanians who have tested positive with covid-19 were asymptomatic, some were struck by an illness that Lisa Duffy of Hempfield likened to being hit by a truck. Statewide, 3,806 people died. In Allegheny County alone, the dead number 127 — 25 more than the flu took in six months across Pennsylvania.

People lost work as businesses closed their doors.

People felt hunger as lines at food pantry distributions lengthened to impossible stretches.

They hungered for connection, too, as family members went into the hospital alone and nursing home residents were cut off from their loved ones.

We have to honor all those sacrifices by opening our eyes to the reality of a disease that is more covert than flu and spreads more easily, and which exacts a higher price.

But for all of the loss, there has been gain.

If we were blind to the hard work of our neighbors before, we see it now.

Nurses, doctors, first responders, police officers, transit employees, grocery store clerks, food servers and more — all those who have labored on despite the lockdowns have made it possible for the rest of us to stay safe.

And then there were those who gave.

We have seen our communities and our businesses, friends and strangers give time and talent, food and money to provide everything from the safety of a mask to the nourishment of a child’s missed school lunch to the heartwarming lift of an impromptu parade.

We have to honor those gifts as well — a generosity of spirit that we may sometimes see as flashes but today seems a steady glow.

The balance is embodied in the lyrics of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” as performed in a video by violinist Lorien Benet Hart, from the Musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

To survive the pandemic body and soul, we have to feel the fear and have our fears relieved. We must use restraint, but we must find ways to carry on.

And we must remember that this is only the first step through the disease, and we don’t know how many steps we may have before we are truly free.

But grace has brought us this far. We just have to continue to show it to each other as we move forward.

But for all of the loss, there has been gain. If we were blind to the hard work of our neighbors before, we see it now.