By Pattie Mihalik

When my daughters were babies, they had fun playing with a bottom-weighted clown. Whenever they pushed the clown over, it immediately shot back up again.

They kept trying to keep the clown down, but nothing could stop it from popping back up.

With the coronavirus shaking us all to the core, I’m a bit like the Roly Poly Clown.

I fall under the weight of what has become our somber world. But then I pop back up again.

Sometimes I’m weighed down by fear or heartache and it takes longer to summon the wherewithal to pop back up.

But I’m rather resilient by nature and have even been called irrepressible.

I may bow over with worry or grief, but it won’t be long before I bounce back.

It was especially hard this week when friends and acquaintances contracted the virus.

Life keeps getting scarier.

To make matters worse, the country is at odds over just about everything.

Living in hot, tropical Florida, I was heartened when the technology adviser of Homeland Security said government scientists found ultraviolet rays had a potent impact on the virus.

But before we could harbor hope from the announcement, “the other side” was declaring it wasn’t true.

Every single thing has to be politicized. Hope has to be tamped down.

Do you get the feeling it’s more important for some politicians to turn everything into politics rather than giving us cause for hope and optimism?

Like Martin Luther King Jr., I, too, have a dream. I have a dream that all politicians will work together for the good of the country and the future of all of us.

It’s so easy to drown in negativity. But I found a cure for that. I shut off the television and refused to read another COVID-19 story.

When I did that I finally was able to regain peace and even joy.

This week I celebrated a big milestone birthday in the most low-key way possible.

My daughters and I had plans to go to Costa Rica to celebrate together. When that seemed too risky, we settled on a homespun solution, with plans to visit beautiful sights in Florida.

Ha. With the need for social distancing, getting together with my daughters will be via Zoom only.

A while back I heard Joni Eareckson Tada says her paralysis doesn’t stop her from marveling at the awesome world outside her window.

“When our world narrows, that allows us to focus in on more of the beauty around us,” she said.

Exactly.

I don’t need a foreign trip or travel to exotic places to see a world almost too beautiful to comprehend.

It’s right in front of me.

I sat outside on my lanai last night until it got too dark to see because the beauty of nature filled my soul with gladness.

It was a remarkable show of nature when strong wind gusts had all the palm trees doing a vigorous dance.

Tree limbs fell to the ground like paper being tossed in the air. A windstorm is fun to watch when you’re safe at home and the day is balmy despite the wind. It’s especially nice to be outdoors on a day like this.

I watched a few birds glide high above me and wondered how they could fly in the face of such wind.

Especially intriguing was a squadron of birds that flew in and out of formation with military precision.

I wondered how they each decided at the exact same time to change direction without breaking formation.

Yes, I know. I have an endless fascination with birds.

All this brought home a simple truth. There’s a wonderful world out there that can uplift your spirits.

All you have to do during these horrid times is to get away from the television set long enough to glory in God’s endlessly beautiful creation.

To celebrate my birthday I plan to do exactly that, filling myself with the beauty and majesty that is ours each day.

Anyone who knows me understands how sentimental I am about my birthday.

I don’t need material presents but I do need gifts, and each year I get gifts in abundance.

Once, my birthday gift was a field of bluebells. Often, it was the cover of violets that often appeared in my backyard on my birthday.

Sometimes my gift was the presence of one of my favorite people. While the coronavirus will preclude socializing with anyone except my husband, I’m not giving it the power to upend my birthday.

Truth be told, when we see everything that comes our way as a gift, we can’t help but be filled with joy and gratitude.

While I’m not at the point where I will ever regard the coronavirus as a gift, I know that forced time alone will lead to other gifts.

Being a true people person, I would rather surround myself with family and friends.

Thanks to Facebook, social media and Zoom, I’ll enjoy my favorite people differently this year.

Instead of living in fear, I vow to celebrate each and every day of life.

And if I get knocked over by the trials of life, I vow to be like that Roly Poly Clown and get right back up again.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.