Looking for silver linings in a sky full of clouds

Five years ago, we published the first edition of the Four Oaks Journal, the magazine that eventually morphed into the one you’re reading now.

It was a simpler time. You could sit down in a restaurant and everything.

Like everyone else, we’re adjusting to our new reality. This month, you’ll find plenty of information about how Johnston County residents are pitching in to help one another during the coronavirus pandemic inside these pages.

I’ve heard that adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it. And what I’ve seen so far from this community makes me proud.

I mean, did you ever think you’d see someone turn rum into hand sanitizer — or see the day that toilet paper would become more valuable than silver?

What you won’t see this month is the community calendar. This will be the first magazine we’ve ever done without one, but since everything we might have listed has gone virtual, been postponed or even canceled, we figured we’d use that space in a more productive way.

We’re adjusting, as we hope you are, to this bizarre set of circumstances. Remember to shop local (when you must), eat local and tip well when you do.

And, if you wouldn’t mind reading and advertising locally, too, we’d be grateful.

We’ll get through randy@johnstonnow.com this together. With any luck, having to do without so many things in the name of social distancing will help us develop a deeper appreciation for life’s simple pleasures.

Like a hot basket of chips and queso at El Barzon, for example.

Stay safe out there!