Change, Meaning & COVID-19

These are unique and difficult times. Our lives have been, quiet literally, halted–for how long, no one really knows. It’s a change so drastic that no reasonable person, given the chance to wave a magic wand, wouldn’t turn back the clock to when a trip out to grab a coffee, visit friends, travel or even see a movie was ordinary and benign.      

But the magic wand doesn’t exist and this new normal may be with us for a very long time.  

Change has been thrust upon us–like it or not.

So, we must change with the change and learn how to navigate our new path. To do this, it is vital that we pay close attention to this moment and explore the lessons it has for us as individuals and even the world.

The COVID–19 Pandemic has brought out the best of us and the worse. We have been selfless, present and giving.  But we have also fallen prey to fear, selfishness and missed opportunities to be kind.

It has turned the mirror back on us–the question is, do we like the reflection we see?  

And regardless of that reflection and whatever judgement we assign it, might I suggest that this moment in time offers us a unique and powerful opportunity–to see ourselves and our society in a new way–one that is imploring us to slow down, be more patient, more present?

Society has become rushed, distracted and addicted to convenience, all at the expense of our physical, mental and spiritual well-being.      

We have lost ourselves in this constant need to distract ourselves.

For everything else that it has wrought, the pandemic has also given us an opportunity to experience our world anew and to find ourselves again. To get to know who we really are–perhaps for the very first time.

It is through this new knowing that we may come to truly understand ourselves and if we have been living a life worthy of the amazing creations we are.

When the worse of this is over and we gladly retreat back into our lives as they once were, I am afraid we will have missed the greatest opportunity this generation has ever known to experience true growth. If this happens–then what was the point? What did it mean?

And yes, you might say that the COVID Pandemic didn’t mean anything—that it was just something that happened.  But, as with everything, the events of our lives only have the meaning we assign them. The lessons we learn are those we choose to learn and the steps we take toward change and growth are those we consciously make—one foot at a time.

The greater the change, the greater the opportunity for growth.

So, I choose to seek meaning and purpose in all this–to learn and to grow. 

For the last 50 years, many of the things I wanted to do were often put on the backburner. Set aside for a more convenient time, a better time, an easier time, the “right” time; allowing distraction and simple procrastination dictate my focus and attention. “I’ll start tomorrow”, or “It can wait”, or “I’ll have plenty of time later” had become my secret affirmations. 

But what all this has taught me—finally, is that we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. And as I have taught for so many years (but rarely lived), the present moment is all we have. This moment.

So, are you paying attention to this very unique moment in time? What is it teaching you about your life and how you have lived it?   Allow yourself the gift to explore this question–free from distraction. Allow this new imposed stillness to serve you. Let it speak to you. And from that deep quiet of the soul, perhaps something good can come from all of this, after all.