Hello Everyone,
I hope this message finds you in good health and spirits, despite the collective chaos we’re facing. This is a good time to reconnect, and I’m doing just that — writing to say that I’m thinking of you, your family, friends, and loved ones.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, humanity is choosing hope over fear, unity over diversity, and love over rage . . . aware as we are that this shall pass. No virus can conquer our spirit.
When catastrophe strikes, we needn’t be consumed by anxiety — for fear, on the whole, is fruitless. Let us find comfort and inspiration to calm our pounding hearts, recognizing the sheer power of a microbe. It’s been enough to upend lives, crush the global economy, disrupt peace, and imperil our liberty. Indeed, we’re skating on very thin ice, and things will get worse before they improve, but let this remind us to count our blessings — down to every last breath.
For now, we all need to stop — to pause, to isolate, and to meditate. Let’s think of ourselves not as trapped in our homes but rather set free in our souls.
We are on a pause…
Pause is a gap, blank in the dashes, an uplifting start, undefinable by time. It is an attempt to hoard the twilight in our embrace as the day slips into the night. How surprising it is this pause that consumes a small infinity inside it; writes an emotional epic with the ink of stardust and finds its way into the vortex.
After all, moving doesn’t always take us forward. Sometimes a pause is just what we need. It’s the essence of photography, which teaches us to adopt new perspectives and see different visuals.
Art is discovered in a pause. Art isn’t made on the move.
We’ve been filling our lives with clutter, so let’s do some spring cleaning. Let’s eliminate the excess ‘stuff’: subscriptions, assets, and even connections that have been weighing us down. Remember: becoming lightweight is the key to flight. Throughout the process, our over-stressed bodies (and minds) will find comfort. Breaks are natural — and necessary. Even our neurological system is wired to take a pause between a stimulus and response, so as to ensure that our reaction is duly thoughtful.
Smell the rose,
See the blue sky,
Feel the sunlight,
Gaze at the twilight.
Soon enough, we’ll be back to our normal speed . . . and in an even better position than before. Returning to our workstations, planning trips with family and friends, eating popcorn in movie theaters, gaming, exploring, purchasing, selling, we’ll surely do all with fresh insight.
We didn’t choose what’s happening to us. It was unexpected and unwanted. Even so, we can decide how to react and take advantage of the situation. Let’s be kind to those around us, redefining “paradox”: a quarantine of caring, closeness, intimacy, and concord.
In this moment of mutual adversity, let us buy gift cards for those most in need. Let us resist the urge to cut the benefits of our domestic service providers, even if they can’t make it work. Please feed stray animals at risk of starvation. Call up an orphanage or retirement home and ask them how you can help. Come close, come together, like wolves that understand their strength is ever in the pack.
Before life returns to ‘normal’, let us use this time to consider our innermost goals. Let us take time to dream.
Pour a cup of coffee, sit down at your desk, and think . . . introspect. Then, do what you want, however crazy it sounds. Talk with your shadow, create something new, and reconnect with yourself.
Read, write, doodle, act, sing, dance, or yell at a wall. Call up your loved ones and talk, joke, fight — whatever. Let it all out. Learn something useful (or poignantly pointless). Innovate. Invent.
We can convert our bottled-up anxiety and determination into pure creative energy, and when this is over, we’ll each emerge a new, as from cocoons.
Together, let’s ready ourselves to thrive in glorious, global unison.
Even when the world around us descends into turmoil, our values — love, empathy, and compassion — must remain intact.
It’s always darkest before the dawn . . . so, let’s stay focused on sunrise.
Picture in the black of night,
A firefly that spreads its light
A brand-new “us” will garner glory,
Struggle makes a sweeter story.