When we are told to stay home, “socially distance” and remove ourselves from the very activity that connects us (by design), we go through the stages of grief...denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And, it’s normal to bounce around in those stages until acceptance is sustained. Essentially, you finally “flatten the curve” and settle into your own new normal.
I have become quite good at this, if there is such a thing as mastering grief. Consecutive years of profound, unexpected and inexplicable loss of my parents, my best friend and my husband, brought me to a place for which I had no plan, no footing and no skill. A place, three years later, in which I find renewed strength, determination and even happiness once again.
It is through my own experience that I posit this: what I believe comes next is that we will emerge from this pandemic renewed, not just in our faith in our fellow man but in the connectedness we rediscovered after years, maybe even decades of technological acceleration...an era that promised to connect us anywhere, anytime, any place and in any form, but served only to isolate us in ways we never imagined.
The story is still being written and we have the chance to participate in the design of this chapter. It’s powerful and worth giving it our all as we shelter in place ...in body, not in soul.