We were all running full-tilt in countless directions before this latest epidemic put up a flag and everything skidded to a stop. In many ways, life was growing unmanageable. Many felt a growing emptiness and loneliness amidst all the available information, technology, human suffering, poverty, competition, environmental degradation, disease, self-interest, inequality, violence… the experience of living in the world today.
This, right now, is an opportunity. A chance to stop and take stock on a personal and a global level. What’s next? Who will we become? What is the purpose of each life and the life of our planet?
I am both naive and cynical. Naive and idealistic in thinking that it really shouldn’t be so impossible to change our collective hurting into growth; cynical because I am already feeling pain and disappointment that we will not take this new path.
Will we change and grow ourselves and our world into a new kind of civilization? One where the bonds of community and family are most important? One where each person’s gifts are valued and contribute toward the collective well-being? One where we recognize our humanity first and our interconnectedness always?
Or will we continue to delude ourselves that our planet is a limitless resource able to sustain our destructive habits? Will we let our politics continue to be guided by power, blame, and scarcity?
What does it take to cause a paradigm shift from separate to interconnected, from blame to forgiveness, from scarcity to abundance and generosity?
I see friends on Facebook growing vegetables in their backyards, creating a direct relationship to what is alive in our own tiny gardens. This is the first step toward cultivating a caring relationship with all of the earth. This is the beginning of realizing that we are not separate from nature. And how amazing to know from scientists that the earth is breathing easier again! There are blue skies in China and dolphins in Venice.
There is quite a wall between these ideals and our usual mode of operating. We have made a life so bleak that we do not care for our most vulnerable because it isn’t profitable. We do not protect our natural resources because it’s inconvenient. We do not know our neighbors because we are too busy.
We don’t know what to do. I certainly don’t have all the answers. It will be hard to change from conquest, secrets, power and greed to life with a better understanding of self and world.
Some see this “pause” as a loss. I see it as creating a necessary space between the old and the new, if we would only let ourselves occupy that mental space. Drop your productivity charts and stock portfolios and confront the pain that is in our society today. We will never be able to keep up with the accelerating pace of life if we focus on short-term results. The things we would sacrifice cannot compare to what we would discover… more connection, more honesty, more joy.
So who are we? Who do we most want to be?
