Each year since the pandemic first began, we continually think that things will change. Things will get better. Things will go back to normal. Right? Right?
But then days turn to weeks, and weeks to months. Now we are even at the point of months turning to years. In this world of tumult and uncertainty, the pandemic has touched each of our lives in some manner. And, I fear it will continue to do so, as that ship has long sailed on it ever going away for good.
So, as we learn to live with COVID and all of its red-headed step-sister variants, we also learn how to live different sorts of lives.
Being smacked in the face with a standstill fear that this pandemic has blanket over the entire world, it is a wonder that anyone has managed to keep one foot in front of the other. However, we as human beings are incredibly resilient creatures. We are resilient and we are creative. This is also why we are not just apes anymore.
Our resilience has come out of a forced space, but it also comes from a true sense in belief that everything will be okay. And it will. Everything will be okay because we are all learning how to change and adapt, and to do so in a much better manner than we ever did before.
Our creativity has been unleashed because we have been challenged at our utter cores. We have risen from darkened ashes of what we were and propelled ourselves into identities that we have longed for. There are countless stories of prestigious businessmen packing it all up just to go play tag with their kiddo on a Tuesday afternoon. Or overworked and underpaid fill-in-the-blankers (there are so many jobs to choose from!) that left it all behind in pursuit of something that actually makes them happy. There are droves of people opening up doors to newfound creative lifestyles they never dreamed of before-- we are now all painters and gardeners, blacksmiths and bakers, knitters and cobblers, even sculptures and writers.
We have been faced with illness and death of so many diverse loved ones. No one is spared from the damage that COVID has in store. For that virus doesn't see things like wealth nor status. That virus could care less about your personal identifiers. The virus plays tricks and mutates just enough to be able to rule the planet, hidden amongst us.
But it is what we do with it that matters. When we are faced with all of the challenges that come our way throughout this pandemic, making the choice to continue--and continue in a way that is so much better than before--is pure gold.
As we approach this New Year holiday and the creation of our annual resolutions, it may just be more appropriate to think of it as entirely something else: creating a REVOLUTION this year.
A revolution is something to spur change. It is full of power and passion, something that is literally busting through the seams from all of humanity right now. And although this pandemic has left us exhausted and longing for the way things were, we are actually all so much better off because of it.
The pandemic has exposed us to our true wants and desires. It has unraveled each of us and left our true strengths standing tall. And as the dust settles, we find our true selves amid so much rubble.
So, as we approach this year's ball drop and favorite rendition of Auld Lang Syne, I employ you to think of the REVOLUTION you are to make. It's time. You owe it to yourself.