Life in Times of Crisis
Nothing in Life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
-Unknown
During the past few weeks, we have been living through a situation that seems to have come from a movie script. A very resistant strain-of-virus have impacted the world and has spread to the point that it has become a global pandemic. Countries are in lock-down, social distancing and isolation, fear of contamination, people working from home are the new ways of living. The economic repercussions around the world and general panic about products becoming scarce are just a few of the manifestations of this international crisis. It is shaking the foundations of our comfortable lives as we know them. What to do? What to expect?
It is in times of crisis that we are given an opportunity to examine the way we live and the way we do things. The Universe decided to bring us to a forced halt because we don’t know how to do it. This is the time to go into ourselves and reinvent the way we live to become a better version of ourselves. This is not the time to complain because we were thrown out of our comfort zone, but perhaps it is the time to spend more time with our family and enjoy it. This is a good time for the rest that we have always hungered for, or read that unfinished book or learn a new skill. It is the time to make space and connect with ourselves and in doing so we will be giving ourselves and our planet a much deserved break.
It was just yesterday that I was watching video after video shared on social media from different cities in Italy. They are in total lock-down and people must stay inside their homes. In these videos, people who live in apartments were reaching out to others and singing from their balconies. What a beautiful sample of community living. The virus can represent a menace to the way they live or to their health but it can not break their spirits.
As I write, on Tuesday morning my first grandchild Santiago came to our lives in Puerto Rico. We are far and our original plan was to fly there immediately after the child birth. For obvious reasons, our plan did not go through. As I think about it, the time for me to hold my grandchild in my arms will be perfect. The time is not now. The reality of the current events came to prove that we need to live one day at a time and be fine with it.
This kind of crisis gives us the chance to stop thinking as individuals and start thinking that the collective well being goes above our individual well being. One can not happen without the other. If the situation calls to stay home, we need to stay home with the highest sense of responsibility. This is not about each of us individually but about taking other people into more consideration. We are going to learn to live in a different way and learning what empathy is in the process.
We will start to experience other ways to be joyful and happy. We have been given this time to re-examine our real basic needs, learn what is really important and make a mindful affirmation that less is more. We have the opportunity to face the very core of our living and make drastic changes to our complete existence. Can we embrace these changes with a humble and open heart? I think we can.