There is a cure. Absolutely.
It’s called: Remembering-we-are-the-lucky-ones. Some call it by its French name:
Stay the *French* Home!
This is the time to be grateful that you get to work from home.
If you feel you have too much time on your hands now; spend it on sending well wishes to those who don’t: healthcare providers, first responders, grocery store employees, truck drivers, and all the volunteers and the rest of whom are all working overtime. They are risking their lives and the lives of their loved ones, so that we, the masses, can stay home. All done in hopes to stop the spread of the 2020 pandemic, COVID-19.
With the safety of our front-liners in mind:
Here’s our collective chance to make good use of this uncertain time to do all the things we complain about not having the time to do, whilst containing COVID-19.
Catch Up with Loved Ones
Do you find yourself feeling depressed about missing the moments and memories with your spouse, children, and loved ones? Well ladies and gentlemen, here’s your chance to get really close to your families and loved ones—within healthy reason and careful boundaries, of course.
Parents who never have time: spend this time with your kids, spend this time actually learning about your kids; what they like and don’t like. See this as an extra special circumstance to do all those little things you were reluctant to send the nanny/caretaker to do because there are simply not enough hours in the day for working parents. For this reason, this suspension in time is a blessing, especially for you.
This is your time to be your kid’s super hero. Read them that extra little bedtime story in that madhouse disguised as a fortress, why not?
DIY Projects
All those projects left on pause, buried in the graveyard of other projects you killed with urgency. Dig them back up and revive them. Paint that old piece of furniture and turn it into something new. Finish that idea or invention. Read, or write that book—do both. Visualize something, put action to it, and make it come true.
No matter what your canvas looks like; paper, furniture, your house, your body—make a project of it!
Fitness goals? Here’s the best time to get to it. Get your friends (on call) and start a video work-out routine—or virtually get together, laugh, and forget about working out altogether!
Get fit, get fat—whatever you do—enjoy it! Emotions are heightened and spirits should be lightened.
Teach yourself a new skill. Plant a fresh garden; put together a ten-thousand-piece puzzle; clean; rearrange or redecorate that old space that desperately needs a revamp. Learn to play an instrument, learn a new language—learn to knit. This is the time to do it.
The Earth demands it.
Be Grateful
Thank goodness for technology and everything that comes with it.
Video chatting is the new way, and with any luck—and international cooperation of every individual and citizen of the world, to properly distance, socially— days of closer physical proximity might just be tangible.
All we have to do is stay home, we have every method of communication available to us: video calling, internet, phones.
We can finally catch up with our friends in different continents and time zones—because right now we are all on the same time—Earth’s time.
Remember this while you’re having a momentary first world problem: If you’re tired of being cooped up—remember some don’t have that luxury. Not the time with their families, not the roof over their heads, and not the food in their bellies. Remember things can ALWAYS get worse—and the way everyone is going out, still, not completely social distancing—it probably will.
However, it could always be worse.
No Good Deed…
In order to have a fighting chance we need soldiers, heroes; the kind who risk their individual lives to save the many.
True to form, and so the saying goes, “no good deed goes unpunished.” It is almost always the ones who have chosen the path of service, who, along with their loved ones, pay the ultimate price.
At the very least, we owe it to them and their families, to pull our weight in this matter and live purposefully.
Therefore, in order to protect our front-line heroes, as best as we can—we need to all stay home and be grateful for them, sending them all the good vibes.
In many cities around the globe, including my own hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, people are cheering and sending well wishes, from their individual balconies, to our hometown heroes during their shift-change. This is the kind of attitude the world needs more of right now.
“If Momma Ain’t Happy…”
It’s time for a reset, people—and her serene highness, Mother Earth, is not messing around—and she is demanding the whole world’s attention and cooperation.
That is a fascinating realization in many ways.
Think about it: We, humans, have gotten a virus due to a rare transfer of disease by animals whose homes we have been polluting and destroying for YEARS— and now it has had enough and is fighting back—with a vengeance.
Therefore, and rightfully so, like all badly-behaved children, we are all grounded and being sent to our respective homes while Mother Dear heals in isolation and cleans up the mess herself.
The good news is, like all mothers, the Earth is very forgiving and she is giving us a fighting chance—a second chance (possibly thousandth).
For the first time in our living history, we are all bound by something more than time, and some experts could argue the Earth is being merciful, because this was long past overdue.
The Earth is finally healing herself, and it is magnificent.
Due to the fact that we are mostly collectively staying home, the Ozone layer is actually repairing itself, the air is less polluted in many places, the animals who have been in hiding are coming out to play in areas of the world where they have been absent for years—that’s incredible—and if she can do it, we can do it, too.