Recently, I have written blog posts at the end/start of the past few months chronicling the many challenges faced in what has been an unprecedented year. With today July 1, I couldn’t help but continue the pattern, especially with what I wrote a year ago.

You see, I hold July 1 in high regard for many reasons, the biggest being that it is the start of the second half of the year. Even in normal years, I remind others that it doesn’t matter how big of a flop the first six months were––the next six can be transformative with effort and optimism.

Although I am going into the second half of 2020 with a positive mindset, I am not naïve. The second chapter of this year is going to be hard for many.

I think we need to put a renewed emphasis on taking everything one day at a time. I understand that a lot of people just want to get this year over with but who is to say that a switch will be flipped at midnight on December 31? We are stuck with 2020 for the long haul and might as well seize each day left in it and control the things that are still in our power (i.e. attitude).

The cynic in all of us might think how can the second half of 2020 be worse than the first? Sadly, I don’t want to give the next six months any added motivation to disappoint. Again, as I alluded to above, from a pandemic-sense, we need to prepare ourselves for more rough times.

But where the virus can overtake our immune systems, it can’t overtake our brains and our hearts. No matter how grim things get, we have to ask God for the serenity to accept the things we cannot change and the courage to change the things we can. As we begin the second half of the 2020 journey, we must remain strong. Don’t Blink.