A forced pause on our busy default mode has compelled me, or many of us to take a hard long look within ourselves at how we’re ‘doing life’. Calmer waters (before CoVid) create conditions for mindlessly skimming along the surface of life, hastily racing from weekend to another, one accomplishment to another, often to fill some deep seated need to prove or please or impress or protect - from who or what, we’re not quite sure.
Yet when storm waves blow in (in this mother storm of a CoVid where not everybody is on the same boat), lives built on some of superficial values and held by untamed fears of inadequacy and insecurity can quickly fall to pieces. As they say, the problem with modern life is that accomplishments cannot produce deep satisfaction.
While we may not enjoy the auto-pilot of our lives being disrupted, this crisis holds a silent invitation for transformation at the deepest level – individually and collectively.
And while I mention courage of reflection and transformation, i am no immune to fear than anyone else. With nowhere to go, this enforced slow-down has highlighted my fear of inadequacy and found me forever striving, trying, yet never arriving- on my race to an imaginary finish line.
How do we reset our attention on the things that matter most?
How can this seemingly gift of crisis be a blessing for lucky people not in the frontlines to pause, and recalibrate our ideas of success?
Much like how the capitalist/consumerist model of this world stresses the earth's natural beauty, have we, as people, been too busy, doing too much? For what?
If this crisis has taught me anything, it's that humanity's temporal range is short, and life is both incredibly fragile and immensely precious. There is no other time but now to stop, and reflect for a more noble purpose. Yet amid a future filled with uncertainty lay unlimited possibilities for me, and us to change the way the world works in more impactful ways.
