As COVID-19 reportable cases in the United States surpass 700,000, the reality of the last 90 days has ushered in tremendous challenge and change to our lives, both personal and professional.
This has been an excruciatingly difficult period, filled with many difficult moments. Anxiety, adrenaline, and uncertainty have fueled a range of emotions as COVID 19's collision with our society has stretched her people to places we could not have clearly anticipated or foreseen. Everything, in almost every way, has changed.
Industry, financial markets, education, retail, transportation, hospitality and healthcare among sectors reeling, though no sector left untouched.
With millions of Americans across the country having fallen victim to layoffs, furloughs, and salary reductions; these and other arduous impacts continue to mount. People are hurting, discouraged, scared, unsure, and confused. Out of this suffering, there is desperation for relief – complicated with a growing and intense thirst to reassemble and reconfigure a new normal.
Each day forward is being met with progress, and in many ways, humanity's focus is being cleansed with unity.
We've had to rethink, reinvent, and redo how we approach the organization of our daily lives. As painful as this unprecedented interruption has been, pockets of innovation have swelled and helped bolster our collective response. Repurposing domestic business units to augment the production of PPE in order to help relieve supply chain constraints, a dramatic acceleration in the adoption and delivery of telemedicine services, rapidly fast-tracked clinical trials, and eased healthcare regulatory environments, are just a few of the many areas facilitating an escape fire of public and private innovation across our industry.
We're also seeing corporations respond to this crisis with generosity, good works, and acts of kindness demonstrating purpose beyond profits. A number of companies are taking substantial actions to reward frontline workers, Albertsons, Target, and Wal-Mart among them, investing in wage increases, childcare and other benefits.
As we maintain a purposeful and unwavering journey forward, throughout this aversity, let us be mindful of the power of grace. It unites us in ways that are unbreakable, propels us towards being our best, and most importantly, provides a powerful foundation to unleash healing.
Grace helps us to steady ourselves, our teams, and our families by posturing our hearts in the direction of service. Our communities need this now more than ever before. We owe it to the legacy of those that have lost their lives due to this pandemic and the front-line healers across our country who are sacrificing theirs to overcome it.