What I Love About the COVID-19 Era

I know, I know... what’s to love about a world pandemic that sweeps through our new decade, interrupting normalcy, shattering lives, and leaving a path of destruction and uncertainties? Please stay with me for a moment in your thoughts and ideas...

While each person may be affected in different ways, essential workers, non-essential workers, the young and fit vs. the vulnerable to health challenges, each of us has had to face something that was unthinkable only a few weeks ago. We cannot “go back” - we are told. We start to realize our culture, our habits; our very being has been changed forever. Never before has this pivotal time been realized with such significance to the population of the present era. 

Here is what I love, despite the tragedies, frustrations, and random loss of human life.

I love that sheltering in place brought a new sense of “home” to so many that rarely took the time to just “be”... “at home”.

I love to see children riding bikes and playing in driveways - a scene that rarely appeared for past decades as so many families would rush around to meet the many schedule demands. Kids get to have days that are fluid and they are learning to entertain themselves, some for the first time ever.Theirs mealtimes have evolved from the former grab and go, take out menus. 

I love the artwork! The creativity, sidewalk chalk drawings and painted rocks through the neighborhoods.

The baking, the bread making, new recipes! 

Photojournalism is more creative than ever, from the professional videos to the television commercials, to the homemade social media “stories”. The messages and how they reach our minds – so clever!

Waving to the passerby has never before had such meaning - such enthusiasm behind this simple greeting. Like a reassurance from one human to another saying,"yes, I’m ok".

Parents are learning to appreciate what teachers do for their students. 

Kids and families are receiving the gift of time together. Home cooked meals. Dinner table conversations. 

I love that he millennial generation is breaking their steadfast "text-only" commitments to pick up the phone and have ”real” conversations with loved ones.

The walkers! Taking walks! For many, taking a walk is new thought. It is the simplest practice and now a known privilege.

Some of us have more time to reflect during this quarantine.Time to really think things through! With much of the addictive distractions of our culture abruptly removed, we are shifting, and realizing that there IS choice in what the future holds. There always was, but now many of us are motivated to use “choice” in new ways, as our freedoms will become reinstated over time.

It is amazing to think of the things we once took for granted... the appreciation for the most simple and ordinary freedoms we once had. We now have time to decide which things we really want to keep - once there is another side to this pandemic threat. 

Each of us can expand on this list and it will, in all likely hood be a different list from person to person. In spite of these differences, this era demands we all reach deeper, hold on tighter, search and seek gratitude in ways we never before thought possible. These “gifts” will serve us for many years to come. 

My hope? That this will be a time of new ideas to expand on, and that we find what is truest to our souls. Individually... and collectively.