Dear ASHHRA Colleagues,

Happy November! As we hustle into the 2020 holiday season, we recognize it will be a holiday season the likes of which we have never seen. My family, like many others, is trying to figure out where, how and if we are going to have family gatherings with the pandemic rearing its angry head just in time for the holidays. With all we have been through this year — COVID, masks, social distancing, shuttering businesses/restaurants, contentious elections — we’re due for a break.

It’s not looking like we’ll be getting one, though. In fact, most hospitals are ramping up for more COVID patients. While we know much more about how to deal with COVID, hospitals are still, according to experts, going to see increased COVID rates through winter. We may be able to slow it a bit with vaccines on the horizon but many experts think we are in for many more months of the 2020 COVID lifestyle, even with a successful vaccine. It is enough to drive us mad!

I have decided that I will not let the pandemic drive me mad and remain hopeful. I firmly believe we are near the end of COVID as we know it. While it may not go away completely, a successful vaccine around the corner will help end the pandemic. I, for one, am going to stay positive. I am going to smile and say hello and hopefully you’ll see that smile in my eyes. I am going to re-read my Jon Gordon books to remind me not to complain and how to be positive. That is not always easy. I, too, am feeling the wear from everything 2020 has thrown at us but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am going to make this holiday season the best it can be in this time of COVID. It will be surely be smaller, but love and hope will still be in abundance. I am going to stay positive about this holiday season, and wherever you may be, I hope you‘re able to do the same and I wish you and your family good health.

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