When something goes on this long, thinking everything through or flying on happy thoughts, sometimes just doesn’t sustain the situation. We all have coping mechanisms, but I think that coping with covid is a deeper reach.
We are all definitely being asked to take our seats, settle in, and find an inner disposition of strength and openness to be and remain ourselves. It is a time for us to walk on our own two feet, balanced, imagining one new day emerging at a time offering inspiration, beauty, peace, kindness, empathy and awareness of our surroundings and others.
The living soil beneath our feet, the sparkling stars, rising sun and full moons, above our crowns, offer us rhythms and rituals to belong to and rest in. I’m grateful for that.
I have to cultivate constant resets and checkpoints in my life, in order to maintain my full balance.
I’ve started a new reset doing a half hour routine with weights and soon with exercises and stretches. I have teeth, hair, skin, hand, and feet spa nights throughout the month, for self care. I write and take quiet times. I stay close to the garden and the world of life and growing. I’m painting birdhouses and pantry doors. Taking photos and dreaming of painting on paper or canvas soon. I’m constantly at the helm of eating and rewriting the choices I can and cannot make for my health and well-being. No ands, ifs, or buts about it, no feel good mistakes, because I won’t feel good in the end.
Most of all I reset inwardly
making sure I am holding open a large space inside of myself,
empty, silent and willing to receive and hear
new ideas, imaginations, inspirations and intuitions,
notice and navigate vortexes of living,
and care for myself, so I can care about others.
In so many ways, there’s a sense of dead ends and yet I know that despite what we can see, there are no ends, just continuous changes in the environments of life and the living. There are seasons and cycles and within each one, there comes a time when the seed phase ends, but a sprout begins. Although it feels small and stifling sometimes, there’s a much deeper reality going on all around us from whatever point of view you take, from whatever perspective you see.
In one of my first posts, I said that people will always bring themselves to the situation. And it has been true. People will be kind and considerate. Some will be angry and fighting. Some will believe there are hidden messages and conspiracies abounding. Some will cooperate with human integrity and values, despite not understanding what is always happening.
Here’s the thing I know. No matter what is happening, who we are is what matters the most. How we care for each other, how we live our lives, how we create our daily lives, matters. Whether we are in a war, a natural disaster, a world pandemic, a music festival, a family event, a social community gathering, who we are and what we bring to it matters.
Sometimes we are not in control of the evolution of consciousness and the evolution of humanity. Sometimes things happen that are so large in our lives, yet so small on a scale of epochs of time, we simply have no way to understand them. Yet each one of us matters and we matter by what we bring to the situation. How we try to work with others, despite differences. Because in the end, everyone will have a different reaction, thought, feeling, perspective about what’s “really” going on depending on which lens one views life through.
How we live with each other in peace.
How we see each other as friends.
How we offer kindness to those in need
and generosity to those around us
truly matters
and begins to change the social and cultural norm.
How we keep our human souls alive,
our human hearts beating with love,
our aware minds awake in the infinite realms of possibility,
and our bodies safe and healthy is essential.
All of this is really not just about our individual lives,
which are vitally important,
but most of all it is about the cultivation of a new world culture
of peace, love, friendship, living wisdom, light and kindness
dying to sprout, grow and blossom, right here, right now
in our life time.
For me, there is an opening. There is an opportunity. There is a moment in time, for all of us to participate out of common purpose…..through our choices, on every level, simple and complex, to live a life conscientious of how we treat our surroundings and each other.
Can we awaken to the beauty and magnificence of life on Earth and our responsibility to not poison it, minimize it, ignore and use it for our own purposes or gains? Can we begin again and notice how we are treating each other, of every culture and every age, every gender, and can we begin to see a new world culture of inclusivity where the dialogue is about compassion, kindness, sharing and caring, tending and nurturing? Can we stop feeding the frenzy of war and hatred and instead sit in circles of differences as a common culture of humanity recognizing what we have in common? Can we see how we have been pulled into the inner worlds of our homes, hearths and sanctuaries in order to reassess what is of true value, what is the source of health and happiness for every mother, father, child, and grandparent?
It is a moment in time, where we have all been called home, to find ourselves, find our gardens, find our friends and families and communities. We have been called home to our hearths of relationships to find true communication, conversation and connection. We have been pulled into our inner sanctuaries of quiet and discernment to ponder and question what is really, really important in order to create, live and sustain a good life with others, near and far. It is time for us to find our words.
I know that what I can do is hold open that shared space inside of myself with so much love, and listen to the words that arise in my heart and soul, filling my mind with clarity, awareness, and thoughts of inspiration, so I can arise enthusiastically each day filled with a sense of common purpose to live my life in peace, in love, full of living wisdom, radiating light, surrounded in beauty, with everyone else.
My hands are palm to palm, chin to chest hoping that we all have been awakened to our commonness in daily living. I hope we all realize that home, hearth and sanctuary for all people around the world matters, from the inside out. I hope we realize that as we take our seats in our homes, for a while longer, there is an opportunity to reset our present day reality by staying awake and saying yes to unfolding a new daily culture of collaborative, compassionate, conscious, kind, and peaceful living together worldwide.
Many say that the new reality is living with covid.
I see the new reality is conscientiously living with each other
surrounded by the beauty, complexity and simplicity of life
the wisdom of the human heart and soul
emerging out of a time of reflection and quarantine.
All I see, is immense opportunity to change,
to grow together
to live together
as if our lives,
and those of our children and their children,
depended on it.
written by Jillian RoseMary LaBelle Sophie
unknown photographers