‘We’re not yet well, but no longer ill enough to lie still and wait for recovery.’
Thought for the week: Bringing us to heal
When recovering from an illness there is a time when you know the worst is over but still feel weak and disorientated – not sure what it was that occupied your daily life before the illness overtook it. Collectively and individually we are now in that stage of recovery from the Covid chaos. We’re not sure what we want. We’re irritable and fractious – not yet well, but no longer ill enough to lie still and wait for recovery.
This will be different for each of us. For some, this has been a time of enforced idleness; for others, of hugely demanding activity. But now, change is in the air.
So perhaps this is the time to take stock. What have we each gained in this time of lockdown, and what we have lost? What have you really missed? What, once it was not available, have you recognised was immensely valuable? Conversely, what have you found really precious about the time we are going through?
These questions need to be addressed for each of us individually before we can create a new way of living as a society. I would like to suggest that it is worth taking time now to really think about them, before old habits and activities become normal again.
One idea would be to actually write down the answers to these questions, and then think about how to forge a way of living that incorporates your deepest dreams.
This is not a selfish thing to do. People living from their hearts are the ones who can create heartfelt patterns in the community around them. Let us take this moment, at the brink of change, to dream, to plan and to make real the way of life we would like for ourselves and for the world.
But beware: there is another agenda out there. There is always a push towards creating unawareness; a lockdown of hearts and minds. When you read the news or hear the posturings of our politicians, listen with your heart alive.
The neurologist Oliver Sacks once told a story of two groups of people listening to a political broadcast. Both groups were composed of people with neurological conditions. One could understand the intellectual content of speech but not the emotional nuances; the other could not understand the content but could grasp the emotional and psychological intentions. Both groups found the political broadcast hilarious.
So separate the words you hear from the intention beneath what is being said and keep trust with your own heart’s truth. Anger and fear are the opposite of love, don’t allow them to cloud your judgement.
Stay as long as necessary in the place of not knowing, of being unclear about what is going on or what your own response really is. This is not a fashionable thing to acknowledge but it is from this unknowing that unexpected and precious new insights emerge.
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