You are going to die. Fearing it doesn’t matter. Being OK with and accepting it doesn’t matter either. How will you live? How will you be of service? How will you fulfil that which calls to you in this lifetime?
Let’s be real. The body that you now inhabit has an expiry date. That’s just how it is. It’s incredibly adaptive, resilient, and useful for experiencing life in this reality, spacetime and dimension, but it was never meant to live forever. What will persist is your legacy. What remains when you’re gone are the ripples and reverberations you initiated or perpetuated while you were here. Your progeny may survive you, but that’s not a guarantee. Many parents outlive their children. You will influence and add to their story, as they will fundamentally alter your own. It’s a beautiful, powerful thing. But it’s temporary, one way or the other.
What do you truly value? This moment in history offers you something unprecedented: a clean slate. Sure, in the short-term things might fall apart, and you may lose some material things. So, what? Why are you attached to things? Why are you continuing in that relationship? If you maintain your health, shift your perspective, and wake up from your dazed confusion, you could quickly amplify your efforts in positive ways. But you have to be willing to ask the hard questions and start being deeply authentic and honest with yourself.
If you have nothing but free time now, are you going to waste it on Netflix? Fear, stress, anxiety, and worry will kill you; they destroy your immune system, escalate aging and systemic dysfunction, while also emboldening potentially fatal placebo effects. The mind is a powerful thing. Watch comedies, instead. Watch Dr. Joe Dispenza testimonials. Listen to uplifting and enlightening podcasts. Get off social and mainstream media. Check in, be informed, but don’t follow the herd. Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and all the rest, are not real life.
You could learn about anything and everything, practice and strengthen your skills at whatever you like. Or, you could simply sit in quiet meditation, reflect, reassess your goals and ambition — perhaps mix in some intermittent fasting to let your body clean itself out, and sleep a hell of a lot more than you ever get to sleep. Your routine has likely been disrupted, and that’s bewildering and confusing at first. Let yourself relax and calm down. Seriously, calm the fuck down. Try something different. Be open to something new.
Today, I’m feeling a lot of compassion. Passing people in the grocery store, or on trails in the woods, there is an angst and anxiety that’s very fresh and raw, but it’s not all-encompassing. Some people give me the evil eye, checking perhaps if I’m looking sick, if I’m keeping my distance, while others let me pass, saying hello, or apologize for their dogs running up to me, as most of their pets are off-leash. Most dogs, as ever, are always smiling.
What I’m observing is that people generally know and feel this will pass, and while the strict and necessary measures are in place to allegedly help prevent the spread of a virus, life goes on. It’s disruptive, and it’s inconvenient, but that’s about all. Some things will improve, yet as we know, some things will be restricted and reduced, at least in the short term. That’s all about the new normal, which is just part of living life.
My hope is that this enforced slowdown will force (or, perhaps allow) people to take a good look at how they’ve been living, and to snap them out of their stupor of busyness, productivity, repetition, consumption, haste, and waste. That’s madness, and very likely a quiet kind of misery and underlying desperation that you don’t need to keep pushing yourself to go through.
There are other ways to pursue this journey. Eyes open.
This day comes once. Learn from your past. Today’s the day.
Solvitur ambulando