In The Pause
All around businesses are preparing to open, people are gearing up both physically and mentally and for some there’s still the choice to continue to work from home or head into the office. If in the pause you’ve caught yourself rethinking your priorities, realigning your life… you’re not alone. The abrupt interruption to life has been the wake up call needed to remind us just how precious and urgent life is. Could it be true that we’re closer to a spiritual awakening than we’ve ever been? Are our sunsets brighter? Our skies bluer? The bird songs sweeter? The trees greener? Or is it simply that in the pause we got present?
Re-Entry
And just when you thought you had this isolation thing down you now face the challenge of re-entry. This isn’t the same re-entry after an extended vacation, the impact may be a little bigger than the Monday blues and this re-entry comes with a twist. You and your colleagues have been isolated, tucked away with kids, pets, extended family or alone while fearing for your life, your family, your job, your finances and your friends. During this time you may have been elated with the chance to slow down then felt shame for enjoying yourself, triumph over your newly discovered green thumb, angry about cancelled celebrations then resigned that life is so damn unpredictable or apathetic in response to the predictable ho hum routine of quarantine.
Responsibility
And in the midst of this we find ourselves gripped by anguish, this white privileged writing a stark contrast to the newsreels reporting on the brutal, inhumane death of George Floyd. Re-entry problems seem trite in the face of this as we sit with the question, what will it take to rid this kind of infection from us? We could start by taking responsibility for all the ways we tolerate and perpetuate these issues in our well intended but ignorant ways. By facing the root causes rather than the symptoms.
New Normal
If we have the collective power to halt the world, to individually alter our schedules, our routines, our family life out of love, we have the power and heart to transform the darkness in our society. To quote Barack Obama, “It falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station — including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day — to work together to create a ‘new normal’ in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts…”
So what will you do with the gift of reinvention you’ve been given? How will you do life now that the Universe has delivered this sacred, profound halt, followed by this brutal blow and yet another chance to realign yourself? Now is the chance to recalibrate, to begin anew. And… it’s predictable that upon emerging the temptations to fall back into old habits will appear and the resolve we had to do it differently will be tested and challenged. We must continue, we all have much work to do after all, life is precious and urgent.
Be Gentle With You
As you emerge, be gentle with you. You are extraordinary, remarkable and resilient. Pay attention to your mental health, find a way to reconnect when you find yourself untethered, consciously choose conversation that nurtures you, relationships that share your values, begin that gratitude journal, start those meditations, ground in nature, honour your intuition, rest more, play more, dream more, pray more, be at cause for something that brings you meaning and expresses your purpose, change the world and believe you can, be peace. It begins with you. Embrace your reinvention over and over until it becomes the new habit. Act with kindness and forgiveness and let love be your guide.
