This concludes part 1 of A Decade in a Year. It chronicles the first nine weeks of the pandemic, from March 23, 2020, to May 23, 2020. This event will be looked back upon for the rest of history. It is from a unique perspective--mine, a resident of a Victory Homes International Christian addiction recovery Men's Home.

For me, life is like a long car ride. Along the way while at the Home, many people have got in and got out of my car. A few stayed in. A very few.

This ride could be a phycologist's dream come true.

Personally, as a man right now on this drive, the temperature outside is cooling, and it's nearing mid-fall. The days have gotten shorter, and the leaves on the trees have changed their color. My winter isn't here, but I can feel it now. More and more, I can feel it. In other words and from a young man's perspective, I am close to being old.

Lord! How funny and tragic it is that I romanticize my past, forgetting all the negative and ugly things I have done. Am I the only one that does that? How I look back on my spring and summer with such fondness. How fast those seasons came and went. This car I'm in has taken a beating, but the motor runs smooth. Plenty of miles left in it. It's not a used car; it's a car with experience.

But something happened a little while ago on this ride. I found a map. It gave me a direction. It showed me the way.

I smile now at my previous ignorance as I realize that I had always been driving nowhere. It's both funny and sad. It's been said that if you're going nowhere, any road will get you there. Now to have a map? Well now, that changes everything regardless of the season!

Which leads me to a question, Where is the road you're on taking you?

Come. Let me tell you about a part of my recent drive. This event in world history called the pandemic. This "decade in a year"--we all lived through it apart and yet together.

Come. Remember our common yesterday with me.