I heard the announcement of gradual re-openings and the first thing that I felt was, “No! Not yet!” And not for the reasons you might think. Of course there are health and safety, economic, political, and personal concerns – in no particular order. The thing I felt the most was the loss of a possible opportunity. What opportunity was that?
The opportunity to see differently, to shift, and to continue down a new path.
Many of us have had extra pressures, new questions, and future challenges come into our lives on account of our experience these past weeks (and months!?). Some of us have experienced more dramatic shifts than others. The shift that we’ve experienced in the past weeks has come at a severe price – the lives of loved ones – either lost, or changed forever.
I feel an obligation to those who have been lost in all of this to use my own time more wisely; to use my particular circumstance and the particular questions and resources I have to do more, and be better. Frankly, I don’t want my own world to go back to a context that naturally leads to being overstressed, overstretched, and overextended. I don’t want to lose sight of the opportunity I had to see differently, to shift, and to continue down a new path.
We shouldn’t need the entire world to stop to have such an opportunity, but the world just did.