All things must pass. One day covid-19 will be regarded in a similar light to the normal ‘flu’ and life will return to ‘normality’. But one outcome is for sure; our lives will have changed for good. Like living through a World War, in a way we’ve been equivalently fighting for our lives, all in it together this time, as one unified species.
Beyond the immense loss of human life, the collapse of businesses and jobs, this ‘stop and think’ time has presented us with opportunities to see life on many levels, and it’s not all bad. For instance, have you noticed how blue the skies have been? The low numbers of traffic accidents? The bravery and dedication of people on the frontline? The kindness of a neighbour? The falling crime levels? The positive healing impact the slowdown has had on the natural environment? Perhaps you’ve been able to do things you never found the time to do before?
The pandemic has directly affected us in so many ways: our personal relationships, our mental states, our methods and manner of communication, how we exercise, how and what we eat, the way we work, and where we work from. It has highlighted our personal hygiene practices, provided us with the opportunity to grow in confidence as we are forced to self-monitor our well-being, and, at a deeper level of consciousness, focussed our attention on how we live, and what we live for. By taking our routines away, we have been gifted the opportunity to look deeply into how we live, what gives us purpose and more.
When the pandemic finally dies down, we will undoubtedly appreciate each other’s company more, be grateful, thankful and appreciate our friendships and personal freedoms like never before. Perhaps this gratefulness will be short lived, or maybe, just maybe, this appreciation will extend beyond our immediate family and friends and include the entire wonder-filled world we inhabit, our magical home, planet Earth.
Change is happening. People are waking up. Human Beings world-over are reassessing what life is all about. Whatever happens next, our human world will have been transformed from this experience, and as the grip of the pandemic relaxes further, we will be faced with options of how to move forward.
The first is a choice to continue with the old egoic structures of greed, selfishness and self-interest, a greedy world where extreme degrees of wealth and poverty exist. Ask yourself, historically where does this wealth come from? Could we change the flow of financial rewards to benefit the many rather than the few?
The second option will be to move towards a more sharing, caring and sustainable world, and there are signs this is already underway. Open-minded businesses are rapidly discovering that sustainable success occurs as a consequence of treating their entire workforce in a fair, even-handed manner.
There is living proof that change is here, an evolutionary opportunity for us to act in unison as a species, to share, to come together, to care for all living things, for to continue in the direction we were heading will only lead to the extinction of life as we know it.
Most recently, Scientists at the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity concluded that: “Every day, up to 150 species are lost.” Now just stop and think about that! And we humans are the principle cause. We are without doubt the biggest killers on this planet, and most of our killing is due to our negligence. As human beings we have a duty of care for all living creatures, to protect all life, including the safe management of the planet we inhabit. Our survival, evolution and future growth is inexplicably linked to our spiritual essence, not our desire to profit.
Sure, we can change the world, but that transformation starts at home, within each one of us. Ownership can make you happy for a while, but it can’t keep you in happiness. Only you can do that. Only you can peel away the facade of your worldly identity and realise your universal spiritual presence. To be free you don’t need to own things. In fact, it seems a life centred on ownership only breeds a false sense of superiority and leads to further disconnection. For what it’s worth, the handful of very wealthy people I have known (who were millionaires many times over) have been the most burdened human beings, and the freest people I’ve met have owned very little, or placed little importance on what they did own. To be free, to be really free, you need to understand you own nothing, for then nothing owns you. And when you take the next step and surrender because you know nothing, then the anonymous presence of life arises in you.
Ask yourself what do you want? What do you really need? Where can you find lasting peace and fulfilment? The answers will not be found in the outer world, but inside you, inside us all. From childhood, we are brought up to look outwardly for the very thing we are, and so the journey becomes a long detour back to our original selves, our inner-being, the soul and the Divine.
So, whatever happens, the pandemic has provided us with the potential to heal, learn and grow. We remember our lost loved ones, the difficulties and struggles, the pain and the suffering, yet we remain grateful for life, for we have not lost our innate desire to celebrate existence. We have been called to be mindful and present and been handed a rare opportunity to step out of our self-absorbed lives, and embrace the oneness of life through our essential nature of compassion and love.
Every cloud has a silver lining if we don’t get lost in its shadow.
Jonathan Harrison
Author and More to Life Elder
