I Ordered Two Coffees One Is for You

How is everyone doing and adjusting to their new work environments? There is definitely an adjustment period I have found, and by the time you read this, I will have been working at home for three days. Yes, I was one of the holdouts and would probably still be in the office if it was possible. So I am still learning and adjusting as much as y'all that took an earlier leave, but I feel I am catching up nicely and creating some new habits and modifying others to make this adjust work for me.

Since Covid 19, we have had to endure new realities. Our world is not the same place and has evolved being flipped around and turned inside out. The virus has changed how we are governed and led by our leadership. This virus has affected how we work and how we earn money to pay for our most basic needs. It has also vastly changed how we connect to the people around us. An analogy that I came across recently compared our current life to surfers. Our lives have changed so dramatically these last four weeks that our lives now resemble a big wave surfer that has fallen, pulled under by the ocean. The moment is surreal, deep, slow, and thorough, and at this point, survival isn't guaranteed.

Before we give up hope on the surfer, we have an opportunity to reclaim our lives, to reimagine and redesign from a clean slate. We, as humans and as a society, we have been working from a very specific paradigm. In case you aren't familiar with this term, a paradigm is a way of looking at something. It is thoughts, a system of beliefs, and how we see the world based on the information we have available to us. Some of the classics society has developed over the years have been
checking out and being emotionally distant,
being closed-minded and socially distant,
mindlessness,
the lone wolf and or being stuck in your head,
culturally conditioned,
hiding from yourself and the world,
being emotionally stunted, and self-obsessed.

As I mentioned earlier, we have an opportunity to reclaim and redesign our lives. We are all in quarantine, and we have the time and the space to orient ourselves toward where we want to go once Covid 19 isn't as scary as it once was.
Can we become the opposite of what we were?
Can we become checked in?
Can we be caring, empathic, and have an open heart to those around us?
Can we be mindful and connected to the earth, people, and our families?
Can we have more self-expression?
Can we be healed in our minds and our bodies?
Can we be cooperative with our neighbors and, most importantly, free of what keeps us stationary and trapped?

I am hoping that the Covid 19 acts as a wake-up call for us and the world, so that we may prioritize our self-care. Namely by doing the things that help our immune system and the overall care of our health through supplementation and vitamins, a healthy diet, working out, and sleep. We shouldn't be limited by addressing our physical bodies only, we should also work on our mental health as well. I am hoping when this is all said and done and before we forget, that we may be more compassionate and understanding. I am hoping that we can learn to be more transparent with people about the challenges we are facing on a daily basis and stop hiding it from everyone.

For myself, I am feeling an impetus to grow and cultivate my relationships and connections even more substantial. I am looking for ways on how I can place the people I love before my other dreams, plans, or visions of my future. I would like to learn to garden and produce vegetables and fruit that could help me become a bit more sustainable. I want to discover ways to cultivate more meaningful relationships with not only those in my life but those I meet periodically of or for the first time. One of the biggest lessons I have learned during this quarantine and our self-distancing situation is that I miss random touches, shaking hands, and hugs, gosh do I really miss hugs. The sky's the limit my friends, and we can reinvent ourselves into the person we always wanted to be. You have to start with one step forward.