So, every day this week has been a really long year or two, huh?
The Coronavirus is here and life is going to change. For many of us, it already has.
I don’t know about you, but I sense myself becoming more anxious by the minute.
There are travel suspensions, Tom Hanks, the NBA suspends their season, hundreds of universities and colleges are moving to online and remote learning, there are concerns about our elders’ health and safety, friends are in quarantine, and we’ve been told the worse is yet to come.
As I sat in front of my computer trying to take in all this news, switching from Twitter to the New York Times to Gmail, I sensed panic brewing in my soul and felt myself becoming overwhelmed.
Then…
I walked home.
A bird was chirping so loud it was all I could hear. I walked past a dog playing in its owner’s backyard. A squirrel was running around the neighborhood as if it was playing a game of tag. The sky was the perfect shade of blue with a sprinkling of gorgeous white clouds. The temperature was perfect and the breeze refreshing.
For a moment, a moment, I felt as if everything was ok.
For a moment, I could breathe.
For a moment I didn’t sense an ounce of anxiety.
And for a moment, I thought maybe everything was going to be ok.
In light of our twenty-four news cycle where everything is breaking news, where panic and hoarding is becoming our reaction, and when we are living in the tension and anxiety of the unknown surrounding this situation, my encouragement to you is to breathe, to take a walk, and to become mindful of the world around you.
I know it might sound trite, too simple, or unrealistic, but it works if only for a minute.
It has the power to snap you out of anxiety and into a sense of calm.
And we all need glimpses of calm once and a while. Especially now.