Pandemic Contemplations

The pandemic, coronatine, quarantine, whatever we are calling it, gave me a nice brain fog.  I inhaled in shock, and it took me a really long time to exhale. I, like everyone else, was caught by surprise. I’m not a stranger to a lockdown. When I need to focus inward or learn something new, I’ve quarantined myself many times.  I don’t want the world disrupting my learning curve, so I was not completely opposed to a shutdown. I, however, have never had the experience of the entire planet having to shutdown with me.  I can take it. I can go with the flow. Can everybody else? Did everybody else?

  Is “shock” a good word for the feelings I felt? You bet! I know how to be quiet. I know when I need to be quiet to allow new information in. Most of the planet, I’m not so sure. At first I was grateful for the rest. I saw it as an opportunity for the planet to reset.  How long would it take I wondered. How long would it take for enough people on the planet to learn to think in new ways? It’s been a year and a half. Im’m not sure it was enough time. For some I hope it was, but for a large number of people it still wasn’t enough.

 After my initial panic, I started to see it as a beautiful opportunity to pivot. Pandemic contemplations I’m calling it.  We all have an opportunity to look at our lives, to really look at our little worlds, our bubbles, and decide what we love, what we really don’t need, and what we can live without. We can look at the things, the many, many things we can let go of.  It can be a nice surprise to see how much we really don’t need and can let go of it.

Honey, people were cleaning out closets, and garages, reorganizing homes and giving away massive quantities. It’s freeing.  How long will it last? Will this new way of being stick? How many people will it take to create a tipping point for the whole world to change?

There are a million conversations to be had right now, about everything. It’s been a great time to rethink everything. We got Juneteenth as a holiday for goodness sakes! It took a planet wide stoppage to recognize that injustice. I’m now calling July 4th, usually recognized as America’s birthday, Juneteenth Part 2. It’s fitting.

How can we maintain the good things this world slowdown is showing us? The air is cleaner. The world is quieter. I cannot tell you how much I love waking up in the morning and can actually hear birds chirping! I also love the fact that I don’t hear people rushing off to places in robot fashion without taking the time to think about why they are doing it, and if it’s really what they want, or if it’s worth it.  I’m not the only one. People are rethinking their careers, their work lives. Does what I’m doing give me meaning? Does it give me life, or is it just subsistence?

 Cooking meals, eating with the other members of the household, gardening, baking breads, putting together jigsaw puzzles, crafting in hundreds of new ways, rediscovering what a slow existence is and how good it feels.  Going deeper. Creating community. I love it, but I know not everybody does.  Not everyone wants to sit with their thoughts.

Here’s the good thing though, many people welcomed the opportunity to sit with their thoughts.  They didn’t even know they wanted to do it but here’s this opportunity.  The whole planet didn’t have a choice.  

We’re discovering what the definition of real power is. We’re seeing what real power looks like, or is it that we have the time to define for ourselves what real power is? We can define for ourselves how we want to participate in the world. 

You know what? That can be really scary.  We’re accustomed to having the world dictate to us what we should be doing, and now in a quiet world, in a world shut down, we get to decide for ourselves how we want to participate in the world.  The people of the planet had to get sick for their wakeup call. I being a contrarian. I being the person who doesn’t always want to follow a crowd is pleased at the prospect of a shift.  

There is so much more to discuss, so I’m going to take these pandemic contemplations in small bites.

How are you doing?