COVID 19 has forced change on us all. 

If nothing else, it’s made us stop and evaluate what’s really important in our lives. 

For a lot of people being in lock down has meant a total reset in lifestyle. The precious commodity of time is back in our hands. 

Time to do those jobs at home you’ve been putting off, time to pick up your neglected musical instrument that’s been waiting patiently for your return, time to go for a bike ride with your spouse and children, time to turn off the constant BS “in your face” media and sit, talk and enjoy the interaction with people who matter the most. Time to be creative. Just getting those constructive juices flowing lets you revisit who you actually are and what you enjoy!

For me, I haven’t been working from home or stood down, so my life has continued pretty much as usual. But in our house, Deb hasn’t worked for five weeks and chances are she will be at home for a few weeks to come. She is so much more relaxed, spending her days painting, landscaping, cooking, decorating and having the creative time of her life. Her anxiety isn’t based on not being at work but rather going back to work – it appears getting a taste for life away from the daily grind can be a challenging thing. 

Here’s some observations I’ve made:

As I make my way to and from work each day, I’ve noticed the highway isn’t the usual chaotic race track filled with stressed out impatient drivers jostling for position, threatening physical abuse to any driver who dare challenge their Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde behaviour. It seems like it’s ratcheted back a notch with a little more patience amongst the combatants in the reduced amount of traffic. Could it be, it’s a reality check.  “At least I’ve still got a job, I should be grateful, no rush, take it easy, five minutes won’t make any difference ”. So patience becomes a virtue.

There’s the hairdresser who having had to go into lock down has now decided she’s not coming back. After suffering back pain from standing day in day out for many years, well guess what, the pain has gone. She’s re-evaluated what she really wants from her life and surprise, surprise it’s not cutting hair all day.

I wonder what good might be happening to the planet; no passenger jets flying, less cars on the road, there’s no cruise ships dumping waste into the oceans, less pollution across the globe. Imagine if the holes in the Ozone layer start to repair. What if the Great Barrier Reef starts to return to its pristine past. Would that be a lesson in what drives global warming?

It’s a whole world of resets. 

I received an interesting comment “I’m not a religious person but I can’t help but think we’ve abused our privilege’s and ignored the warnings and now it’s been taken out of our hands” – mmm who am I to argue?

Though I can’t help but think – we are creatures of habit and obsessive consumers of all things materialistic. No matter what, when we do come out the other side of this pandemic, how long will it be before we all go back to living our past lives – how it was prior COVID.  Will we have actually learnt anything or will it be just a fleeting moment in time conveniently forgotten? As the Police song said ” Packed like Lemmings (a small arctic rodent by the way) into tiny metal boxes” as we go back to racing up and down the congested highways, pushing and shoving in packed trains and undergrounds, any gained respect lost as we return to justifying our own importance in being in the front of the queue to somewhere still yet to be determined.

Thanks for reading – RD

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