Happy Easter! Or?
Happy Easter! Happy Passover!
How are you? How are you doing?
It's springtime, nature comes back to life, the sun warms souls and soil ...
Many celebrate Easter, some Jewish Pesach or Passover, some keep the community machinery up and going, others enjoy the holidays. Days of traditions and symbolism: Christians remember Jesus' death, celebrate His resurrection and life after death. Jews celebrate the liberation from slavery in Egypt which in turn opened for Exodus, a journey to their own land. Hope follows suffering. In my part of the world, nature awakens after a long period of dark hibernation. It’s time for spring cleaning, seed sowing, planting and caring for the garden before summer turns it all into full bloom. The light and the warmth bring hope and joy!
Most people are home now. An invisible little virus has turned our lives upside down. It easily spreads where people meet, bringing sickness and sometimes suffocating death. 'The weak' among us are powerless against Covid-19. It’s hard to accept such ruthless brutality, easy to deny the danger, demanding to acknowledge the limitations it brings. Social distancing, infection control measures, capacity in health care system, emergency respirators have overbight all become everyday words. Should we fight, protect, seek treatment or just continue life as before? Before here in Norway where I live is 4PM- March 12, 2020. We all have our Before-point in time. Human society is in an acute state of emergency. Still Life goes on.
Many governments, with trustful people behind them, have shown will and ability to act. They seek to master the situation for the best of the country, to guide us as safe as possible through the pandemic. Norwegian Health Minister Bent Høie, with others, appears safe and calm every single day at 4PM, informs, answers questions, thanks various groups of people. Purposeful, bringing hope, asking us to keep our courage up while respecting their decisions. A gigantic lab - none of us have been through such times before. We must try, fail, adjust from day to day. Each one of us must take personal responsibility for our actions and how we affect each other. Now is the time to act consciously! Conscious leadership in practical usage ...
Everyone in working life is affected: some companies and organisations had to slow down or stop completely, others are still working to adjust to a new everyday life. Some seek to enrich themselves while others look for new opportunities to contribute, such as ‘Sisters in Business’, who overnight went from being a modest enterprise for migrant women partially outside work society, to becoming a major supplier of infection protective coats. Creativity awakens in the form of new DIY-face masks and speedy collaboration on emergency respirators.
In private life, quarantine, isolation, food purchases, health- and hairdressing visits have become the new everyday challenges. Social gatherings have almost disappeared. Digital life opens up for new users. Neighbours collaboration finds new forms.
How do you feel about all this? How are you really doing? How do you cope?
Even before the pandemic, I had been in my own process after life crises. I’ve already embarked on a new path, created a new life. For several years now I’ve worked from home with my own business. My services have been adjusted along the way and now once more must find a new form: how can my services remain of benefit for my clients today? How can we work together? New video call offers are in place (works while still work in progress), new online versions of existing group courses are under development. My network these days consists mainly of husband and adult sons. Safe distance walks with neighbours and phone calls provide for a minimum of social life. Some regular meetings have gone from physical via telephone conferencing to outdoors meetups and on to video conferencing. All these meeting forms are rewarding in their own ways. Now they are being explored and tested to the fullest. Although none of these forms are new to me, they provide something new to the relation and task at hand depending on who the other party is, how confident we feel about each other, and what the intention of the meeting is.
The last week, I’ve also spent a few days in voluntary isolation at our cabin. Away from other people, the internet and home duties, I give myself time to find deep peace and quiet. This also gives room to think long thoughts, recognize inner needs, create something new. Alone with myself I find back to myself. From there, I find renewed strength to use my abilities and voice in the outside world in accordance with my own values.
D.W.Winnicott wrote that a life worth living is the life we create ourselves, rather than the life where we comply to others. He wasn’t talking about a selfish life without regards for others but oneself, but of living together while also holding space for the individual each of us is.
How can you be yourself while mastering the situation you are in?
My short answer today: you stand up as yourself while mastering your life, when you find flow in the movement between being with yourself in your inner life and acting in the outside world with others. What do you find within – in your mind, body, feelings? What can you bring with you from the inside? How do you meet others out there? What strengths and abilities do you use? What do you do that is also rooted in your inner being?
There is a life after Corona. There’s life after symbolic death and liberation. There is hope after loss. Loss gives room for something new if we only dare to give it space and create what wants to emerge.
Happy Easter, take care!
Need someone to talk to? Get in touch, I'm here for you!
Friendly yours, Lise
