I've thought long and hard about how to approach this transitional period of mine that went from 'three years of freedom' to 'what the hell just happened?" ... I think a lot of people are saying the same thing about themselves, particularly about the past couple of years.
I often think of this time as a black-hole, sucking out the one thing we've always had - choice. But I also believe that situations create the person, and we all just went through a very large, global, situation.
We had something, a certain way of the world ... then we were thrust unawares into the in-between ... this very odd period of global uncertainty.
I had to return home during this, suffer having to acclimatise back into Brisbane and do the one thing I said I'd never do again - get a job. It, along with the flu, docked three years out of me that i'll never get back. But it is exactly this type of morose viewpoint that has strangely afforded me the ability to reflect and realise that time is never wasted and our little journey into the 'in-between' has not gone without purpose.
Experience teaches us that we view things best post-haste, after the emotions have died down and we are afforded the ability to reminisce. It can be confusing at times trying to make sense of it all, most especially in the information age. And there has been no better example of the flow of information than these past two years, it playing out much in the same fashion as the movie Don't look up.
All in all though, none of what anyone else thinks or says should have any relevance to what YOU think, what you yourself feel inside. Data is just data, they are just pieces of information around you, helping you to navigate your way around this globe and hopefully help shape something called wisdom - that intrinsic ability to explain something without the use of 'data'.
One of the greatest opportunities I have found that the 'lockdown times' has given us is the ability to go within. That is, we have been locked away from each other for two years, had our liberties taken and our choices seemingly removed ; it's just like being tossed in a prison. And in prison you either get worse or get better, you group together or you rise the individual.
Having solitude is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand you are screaming at being given no choice, told you can't visit your family, that local pub or even get a haircut. Overwhelming feelings of anxiety can exacerbate themselves in the form of an extra glass of wine at night, a heated word with a close one or anti-social tendencies.
What's not often discussed is this amazing opportunity we've been given to isolate, to go within and truly reflect on ourselves. It has been the global time for humanity to journey within, explore the self and face whatever terrors or trauma's greet you there. This is what time alone is for, and the whole world got it at the same time.
And even if you've had that time and think to yourself 'shit, I should've done more." then you have still learned. Because that's what life's about, learning. We had something before, we went into the 'in-between' and now were coming back out on the other side.
It would seem this black-hole is now closing, the borders and barriers to our lives slowly redacting themselves and allowing us to peek back out of the cubby-hole. As you come out ask yourself if there's a lesson to be learned in there somewhere? And did you learn it?
There are many I can point to from my own perspective, far too voluminous to detail here, so i'll leave you with a quote that may help allay any confusion about 'things' and how they 'happen' to us...
“There is nothing outside of yourself. Look within. Everything you want is there.” —Rumi
Peace,
Michael.
