This blog post isn’t about Toronto’s hot real estate market or the hip coffee shop down the street. It’s about Covid.
The past two weeks have marked a massive paradigm shift in our lives. Our daily routines have been appended by the ever increasing cacophony of terrifying news reports, school closures, lockdowns and tense conversations amongst friends and family, all trying to decipher the new meanings of self-isolation, social distancing.
While pandemics were once relegated to the history books, it’s effects are now permanently etched into our cultural milieu . We now know with certainty that our lives will be forever changed by Covid-19. But, however distant it may seem, we will pull through this. Many of us with our own battle scars.
We are also bearing witness to the symphony of friends, neighbours and strangers ready and willing to lend a hand. Despite physical distancing, we have come together through this shared experience. We are reminded of our oneness as a human race. What’s more encouraging still is the unanticipated benefit of fewer emissions and pollution. This eludes to the potential of reversing the damage done to our beautiful planet.
There’s another common thread among the dozens of messages and posts I have read, people believe that in some way this Pandemic is the Universe’s message to the human race, imploring use to PAUSE. Our planet is dying and we’re seeminingly racing toward our demise. We are the proverbial frogs slowly boiling in a pot of water, oblivious to our own mindless consumerism in the pursuit of every possible human comfort. We have collectively been assholes toward ourselves, our planet and each other and now is the time to change.
When this is over, what will we do differently? What lessons have we learned and what are we individually going to commit to changing to make our world a better place?
While I am encouraged by the compassion and awareness that I see all around me, I implore you to continue. Make a commitment to doing something good, something your weren’t already doing but know you should. Just one thing. Make that promise. Maybe it’s a daily prayer or meditation, or bringing your own mug to the coffee shop. Or maybe, it’s showing up for yourself in a way you never could before. Whatever it is, consider this Pandemic a second chance and make it count.