Hidden Blessings Written by Wanda Rodriguez Written on May 16, 2025 Published on May 18, 2025

Hidden Blessings

Written by Wanda Rodriguez

Written on May 16, 2025

Published on May 18, 2025

I think it is safe to say, without too much (any?!?!) opposition, that Covid sucked eggs!  Living through a global epidemic, witnessing the world’s gears grind to an unsettling halt and experiencing the entire world being brought to its knees was mind blowing, to say the very least.  Life as we knew it came to an abrupt and dramatic end; it was a brutal, somewhat surreal, eye-opening slap in the face.  All travel suspended.  Students came home to learn.  Workers came home to work.  Only “essential personnel” physically went into work.  Isolation ruled the day.  Fear gripped people’s hearts.  Businesses folded.  Drive-by celebrations became a thing as cars paraded past the honoree while holding signs, honking their horns and hanging out of the car windows.  Yard signs were abundant.  Masks. Separation by 6’.  Touch nothing!  Fear.  Suspicion.  No visitors for the sick.  Quarantine.  Aggressive nose swabs for testing.   Don’t you dare cough!  So much hand sanitizer that our hands were raw. Widespread fear gripped the hearts of all.  Tragically, there were so many precious lives lost.  It’s doubtful that anyone survived this journey without losing someone to this tragic outbreak or knowing someone who had suffered a loss to it.  No one was left unaffected by this horrific virus. No one.  

All that being said, I did find some hidden blessings during the epidemic.  I recognize that everyone’s lives/days are busy, way busier than I remember them being when I was a child.  I find this to be especially true where I live, as it is uber competitive.  Basically, if you didn’t come out of the womb already skilled in a particular sport or subject, you might as well give it up now as you don’t stand a chance.  Perhaps I exaggerate a smidge but there is, without a doubt, unspoken (and spoken!) pressures and expectations that await, at all times, barely below the surface.  This brings us to what I consider to be a hidden blessing from Covid.  We received a forced reset, kinda like unplugging a difficult appliance, waiting a few minutes and then plugging it back in.  Voila!  Problem solved.  Covid wasn’t quite that easy as it took a long time to reset and recover, but it did force a slowdown.

I am forever grateful for the mandatory slow down and the unique opportunities it offered.   I got to spend more quality time with my family, especially my kids and my husband.  As it turned out, it would be just a few short years later that we would lose my husband to cancer making this enhanced time together more valued. What a gift.  It allowed me to get to know my neighbors on a deeper level, beyond the standard, “Hi. How are you?”-esque pleasantries typically exchanged as we rushed to and fro. We got to share movie nights outside on the driveway, coloring Easter eggs together outside, and so much more.  The good thing was we were always home and almost always outside. Though we were restricted from seeing some family members, our chosen family members grew by means of proximity.  Hidden blessings!! 

Recently, a close friend went on a beach getaway with her hubby.  Their accommodations were lovely but brand new and thus had some kinks to be worked out.  The biggest of which involved the fire alarms that sounded easily and often.  Each time, all huts had to be evacuated until cleared by the fire department.  Given the frequency with which this occurred, the response time quickly grew.  The most notable happened in the middle of the night, as fate would have it, during the recent pink moon.  It took over an hour for clearance to return inside.  Instead of grumbling about their interrupted sleep, they wandered over to the beach and enjoyed the fabulous evening and the spectacular lunar display.  They would have otherwise missed this event, and the shared memory, completely.  Hidden blessings!!

While in recovery from a recent hernia repair procedure, I got a text from a neighbor telling me that food had been delivered and had been sitting on my porch for some time.  She took it in for me, but the thing is that no one in my house had ordered any food and I was still at the surgical center.  I quickly learned that a friend had ordered the food, but it was delivered to the wrong house, to my house.  What are the chances?!?!  She got things straightened out with the delivery service and told us to keep and enjoy the food.  When I returned home that evening, the kids and I had a “reveal party” as we dramatically opened up the mystery bag to see what was inside!  It was perfect!  There was plenty of food for that night and lunch for the next day!  This delivery error blessed not only my family but my sweet friend’s family as well through their generous, unplanned, act of kindness.  Their initial frustration at not receiving their order as planned was replaced with joy at knowing how they had lifted up me and my family in my time of healing.  Hidden blessings!!

You get the idea.  Sometimes our plans or expectations go south, and it can be very frustrating.  Remember to keep your eyes open to what’s happening around you and you might just find yourself in the thick of hidden blessings!  So many examples come to mind!  I would love to hear about some of your hidden blessing experiences in the comment section below!  Often, things don’t work out the way we want them to, but it’s usually because God has a bigger and better plan!  Hidden blessings!!  Tell me about yours!  

As always, huge thanks for joining me on this journey.  -Wanda