As I write this so many of us around the world are facing the second wave of the pandemic. In the Northern Hemisphere this is also at a time when the days are growing shorter and colder. To paraphrase Game of Thrones, winter is coming, with an added layer of pandemic lockdown.
My thoughts go to the fact that we cannot travel, we can, in many countries and regions, not even visit other households, including family.
I feel the need, for myself and in support of others, to look for tools and ways to stay positive and thrive through this time.
So, if we cannot make actual journeys, part of what can carry us through is an inward journey, so that gives me some thoughts and ideas to share that may be of support to you now and in the coming months.
For me part of the inward journey is getting lost in beauty, and in particular beautiful writing, art, music.
I also am thinking how surreal and even unreal the time we are living in feels. While we carry on day to day, so much of what is unfolding seems bizarre and barely believable based on our accepted reality.
So, to that point, my mind goes to the idea of “magical realism” and to an absolute favourite novel from the master of magical realism, “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I referenced this book in a long post called: “Leadership: Romance, Life in Full Colour and Magical Reality” and I encourage you to get lost in that post and art writing I link to within the post, from Marquez to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to Monet to Frida Kahlo. I close by sharing the end of that post, a thought for leading yourself and others:
Oh, and who is Dr Robert Jarvik? The innovator of the first permanently implantable artificial heart.
Be anchored in reality, yet not constrained by it.
