The pandemic sucks.
Happy homebodies are relishing in Netflix, Postmates, and lounging guilt-free, but most agree the pandemic has been a nightmare.
However, I’m sure even the most hardcore couch lover can list many downsides to the stay-at-home perk. Lost jobs, death, separation, isolation, fear, panic, worry—the list goes on and on.
The pandemic has ripped through the life we once knew—universally.
In fact, it doesn’t even matter where you stand as far as opinions and beliefs. Even those standing 180 degrees from where you do can probably attest to the havoc and discord bestowed upon humanity. Believers and non-believers alike can see the wreckage. From all angles and viewpoints, the world is in unrest and chaos, and pain. And it continues.
We know all about the destruction.
Let’s shift to the reconstruction, shall we? The gift, the hope, and the silver lining.
Isn’t there always something good that comes out of bad? Isn’t there always something, somewhere we can point to? Sometimes it takes many years, but eventually, an “Okay, that was a gift I didn’t see coming” emerges from the rubble (if we look).
Hey, we have full freedom to not look or feel ready for forgiveness. We always have choices, and we can stay mad for as long as we want.
It doesn’t matter how we currently feel and how our life has opened up again. If it’s full-throttle, halfway there, or not at all. Back in the flow or completely lost for the purpose of a deep dive into your own personal insights, let’s set aside the negatives for now. We can go back whenever we want—they are readily available.
Dive back into how you felt when things were the most challenging:
>> What did you uncover?
>> What realizations did you have?
>> What did you find you must do the second you were able to?
That old saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” really applies here.
What did you really wish you could do but suddenly couldn’t because you weren’t free? What urgent “Oh no, I must do this” bell inside you went off? What made you cringe with “I can’t believe I held off on that,” or “If I get the chance again, I will rush to do XYZ?” What did you quietly pray for, asking, “Please give me another chance?”
What called to you?
Did you not take that African Safari? Or go to Greece or Ireland? Did you sit on that Bali trip because the flight was too long? How about the Grand Canyon?
What work realization did you come to? Were you thrilled when you got the chance to work at home? Or were you crystal clear on the fact that you love an office environment with coworkers?
Did a new career idea you had never even thought of before come to mind? One that emerged after your job fell apart?
Maybe you realized you were in the wrong career entirely, and you want to go back to school. However, you just never found the right time.
Did you realize that family comes first when you couldn’t visit them? That living away from them isn’t worth it anymore, and you want to move back to your hometown?
Perhaps you found yourself living in the wrong state or country, and you discovered it was time for a move.
Were your friends not who you thought they were? Are you shifting toward new people who share your values?
The revelations are endless. What are yours? What did you realize was the most important? What got swept away in the clearing of the old, and what did you discover that you wanted?
There was always the tried and true “bucket list,” sometimes brought out on New Year’s Day or vision board parties. However, with time, it seemed to get set aside.
Then the pandemic came along and magnified that list, even rewriting it, with a ticking clock beside it. We spend so much time being aware of death and how time is quickly passing but simultaneously put things off for later. The “Oh, I’ll get to it next year” or “after the kids go to college.”
But it really is now! The time is now. Sometimes we just need something to shake us up and remind us that time is undoubtedly of the essence. Nothing is guaranteed.
What a reminder of the sacredness and fragility of human life.
To see how precious time is and how easy it is to take it for granted. What an opportunity to find the truth in our heart.
What do you want? Who did you find emerging from the rubble?
And if you found it, now you can move toward it.
~
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