Have you noticed that in normal news cycles a major story stays on the front page or receives headline attention for only a few days... and disappears over a matter of 2 or 3 days. The emergency and its impact may remain, but the newsworthiness has lost its power to attract and retain attention. It slips from our consciousness. We move on.
Maybe its the losses we've experienced this past year or the scope of this crisis... this COVID Story just won't fade away! Many people want to move on; some states are loosening their restrictions: people want to return to normal... but the story remains!
And now, along with the daily telling and retelling of this Viral Unfolding within our lives, we have arrived at several anniversaries:
- The first known case
- The first case in the United States
- The first deaths
- The first Stay-at-Home / Safe-at-Home / Lock-down directives
- The first surge
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| How do you celebrate anniversaries? |
In my family, anniversaries have centered on reflection and celebration. I have noticed these are the filters through which I am trying to understand these COVID anniversaries: reflection and celebration. But something is unsettling to me about celebrating these milestones.
Rather than finding fault or blame for where we find ourselves, these filters are asking different questions of me:
- How have I changed over this past year?
- Do I focus more on the negative impacts on my life or the positive responses of adapting?
- Where am I thankful?
As I reflect and try to celebrate, I am aware that my impatience and intolerance obscures what I see and feel. I want to move on to the next story!
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| What obscures your view? |
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| What fills you with gratitude? |
His
comments -- along with my anniversary filters of reflection and
celebration -- have me wondering:
Would you be willing to explore with me...
- Ways that I (we) have changed?
- What I (we) are grateful for?
- Our vision of the world after the pandemic?
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| Larry Gardepie (click on link for website) |
I have been changed irrevocably by both my diagnosis and COVID. I have grown in faith and trust that as challenging as this has been it will change to something else, perhaps “better”. I have let down the body response to past and present trauma, anxiety. I’m very much living one day at a time and staying present to what is. I’m also very clear that even though I do miss social engagement, something I will return to with pleasure when the time is right, I am also anticipating that a ‘new normal’ will include less emphasis on an all-at-once lifestyle (less frenetic) and more on quality of engagement in the present moment. That’s my ‘truth’ and I’m sticking to it!
ReplyDeleteDebbie, what wonderful insights: to live in the present and to focus on the quality of engagement when the "new normal" opens us to new possibilities! I support yoo in your truth!
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