Life is complicated right now. As the dreary days turn into prolonged weeks–and quite possibly into dazed months–people all across the United States are quarantining, desperately trying to make sense of “the new normal” that COVID-19 casually dropped on their once lively doorsteps without the slightest trace of regret.
With the sudden allotment of extra time on our hands, many individuals are faced with their greatest challenge yet: being alone in their thoughts.
Allowing internal monologues to dictate our feelings can be overwhelming. Presently, there’s not an abundant supply of distractions which allows opportunities to turn your brain off. Businesses are temporarily and permanently closed. Friends are figuring out how they are going to keep afloat financially after being laid off from their once prized jobs. The generations who came before us are anxious that they might pass away if they dare venture to take a step outside of their front door.
These are not pleasurable images to envision. They are staggeringly real, though. Denying the clamorous reality of what we are facing would be a towering injustice to who we are, at our authentic core.
We are human beings who lived. We have an illustrious history. We have lucid memories. We have an intricate past.
Beautiful, right? If we’ve been blessed to make it this far, we should be appreciative for what–and who–got us to this point. Why not celebrate the good, the bad, the messy, and the downright hideously cruel?
There might have been a shadowy period in our lives where we could excuse ourselves from facing the remarkable and unnerving moments that defined us, for the better or worse. Time is currently on our side.
When will we ever be able to say that again? This is an uncommon circumstance that is summoning us to be fearlessly truthful.
How strangely fortuitous we are. We now have the bright subsidy of extra seconds to make our unmistakable voices heard, emphatically clear. With despair looming around the corner, there is also honesty and gratitude gently waiting for our sweltering embrace.
Now would be the time to articulate a sincere apology to the one you wronged years ago, when you were young, dumb, and didn’t know any better. Now would be the time to say thank you to those who boosted you up, while expecting nothing in return. Now would be the time to confront the demons who are presently lurking in your overstuffed closet.
Say it. Put it out there in the universe.
You are now free.
You’ll thank yourself no matter what happens, and might even get an astonishing thank you in return from somebody unexpected. What a gift.