Slow down, brother
Covid19 is a global disaster. As measures around the world are slowly loosening up, the grip of the virus is still felt everywhere. Besides the obvious tragedy, a lot is said these days about the upside of this situation. Mother earth is breathing again, working from home appears to be possible everywhere, schools are reinventing the way they teach, great initiatives are started all over the world.
Before I get to the point of this story, I want to emphasise that by no means I want to trivialize what is going on in the world. This pandemic is a tragedy for a lot of people. It’s terrible to get sick or to have a loved one get sick. This illness has made clear it isn’t just a flu, it’s worse. And it’s killing people. I don’t have the words to properly describe the extent of this tragedy and my love goes out to all of you.💙
Our lives in the Western world are usually very busy. We live our lives like it’s a never-ending to-do list. We run around from our demanding jobs, to our tasks at home. Keeping our houses neat, making sure we have filled fridges and pantries. We rush our children to daycare or school. In between all this we need to go to the gym, we join clubs, we have to make sure we wear the latest fashion and have the newest gadgets. When the weekend finally arrives, we cram it with social and/or sports events. Clubbing, pubbing, dinners out and about, making sure we’re seen in that hip and happening new joint. You name it. Before we know it, it’s Sunday evening and the rat race is about to start all over again. Weeks, months, years fly by. Only interrupted by a couple of weeks vacation a year. Wait, that’s not as easy as it sounds. We require far and dreamy destinations. Add to this mix our borderline obsession with social media, games and Netflix, and a recipe for physical and mental problems is complete, isn’t it?
The list of what we want and need seems endless and most of our ‘needs’ are instantly satisfied. Almost everything is up for grabs 24/7. We’re living our lives on demand. But in this process, do we ever stop and take time to feel what we are really in need of? Do we ever stop to think about what it is that really matters most to us in this life? We simply don’t have the time.
All of a sudden now, there is time. Time to reflect and time to think. Time to spend alone or with our families. Time to ponder, time to lounge around. There is no question about what to do this weekend. We’re staying home. Can we use this time wisely? We’ve been running around like headless chickens for too long now. Let’s use this time to settle into a mode of resting and contemplating a bit. Let this period of rest soothe us and let it strip us from all the things we think we want or need. I hope this obligatory downtime brings something valuable to all of you. I hope you’ll be able to really feel what you are in need of, so you can prioritise your life after this and there will be no ‘going back to normal’ but rather a new life that fits you.
“I’m going nowhere and I’m going fast
I should find a place to go and rest
I should find a place to lay my head tonight
Every morning there’s another start
Every morning hits so hard
Guess I’m running scared guess I’m running on empty”