Living through this pandemic really is like being on a ship for a long voyage. We are not truly stable, we are not grounded.
As we move through September, nearly six months into our lives being changed by Covid-19, here in the UK (and many other countries) we have this sense that the easing we had in the summer is as good (or better) than we will experience through Autumn, Winter and beyond.
We live day to day as we can, sometimes feeling things are quite normal, other times feeling the impact. Underneath it all, though, there is this underlying uncertainty and a deep sense of awareness that things are not as settled as they should be.
Yesterday I was on my weekly circle call with my April 2018 cohort from the Modern Elder Academy and several of us mused on this in different ways.
What came to my mind was the analogy of being on a large and stable ship (such as a cruise ship), feeling everything is normal and stable, then realising when you step off the ship onto land that only then do you truly feel grounded and centred.
Living through this pandemic really is like being on a ship. Much of what we do as we eat, sleep, work, live, interact is (as far as possible) normal, yet under our feet, despite the stabilisers (aka governments and institutions) balancing the ship as it moves forwards, we are not truly stable, we are not grounded.
As we prepare ourselves for the continuation of this long journey, I encourage each of us to focus on what we need to maintain our balance, our equilibrium, our equanimity, our alignment.
I like the term “proactive resilience”, do whatever you can to give yourself more than you think you will need to stay resilient for this long journey. You can never be too resilient, but you will feel it if you lose your balance.