Remember back to February of 2020? I can recall we had just stepped into a new year; the year of ‘Clear Vision.’
Clear Vision indeed. Looking back we can see very clearly what was to come. How inescapable it all was. A great deal of discernment and clarity has surfaced since then.
But, do you remember you, before that moment in history unhinged well, everything? Do you remember the structure and patterns of your life? You’re predictable schedules, duties, places you went? The rhythm of your job, the way you ran your home, your family, your life?
More than likely a great deal has changed. You have changed, maybe for the better? And…maybe in ways that are unsettling.
Do you miss it? The structure of your pre-pandemic life? What you thought you could count on or at least pretend to control?
What have you lost which now could, or needs to be regained?
I know for myself, I have lost a lot, while at the same time gained profound insight into myself and the structures of our society. A lot has changed. Much needed change, to be shook up, hung out to dry. We have a great deal of dirty laundry to air.
But as much as so many of our intrinsic societal structures needed to change, some of what we need on a day to day to thrive, and be well, has been lost.
I’m talking about the disruption to our former patterns within many of our day to day activities. Work was disrupted, schools were disrupted, social networks, disrupted. Our communities through worship, health, wellness, fitness and leisure…all disrupted.
In many ways we have lost ourselves. We are wandering unstructured, ungrounded and untethered to much of what we once knew or did. Think about it. Can there be order and harmony in an unstructured classroom? After 30 years of teaching I can tell you no…there will be chaos, bad behavior, and confusion. We humans do not like to think of ourselves as animals, but animals we are, and just like the pets at home we thrive when there is order and structure to our day to day lives. Also, we feel good about ourselves when we follow through with those patterns of a structured life. When we make a commitment to a pattern, be it showing up on time for work, or making it to three classes a week, or going to church every Sunday we feel good, better, safe.
At the end of a long winter, as the sun begins to warm, and the earth to reawaken…ask if it isn’t time to come back home to yourself, by giving yourself the promise of commitment to you. Your familiar, healthy patterns, your life’s structure rebuilt once again. No more confusion and inability to follow through. Come back home to what once served you, served your community, and made you, and your life happier and healthier.
You will be glad to be back home.