So What Comes Next?

So what comes next? With news everywhere about states beginning to evaluate how to come out from under full Shelter In Place Provisions, where will we all go from here?

I tend to be pretty pragmatic about issues in life. Pragmatic as in I tend to deal with things in a way that is based on the practical rather than the theoretical. So, pragmatically, what comes next? Because for sure the life I knew, we knew, before COVID-19 is not coming back anytime in the near future. Possibly not even in my lifetime. I mean, who really knows?

The transition from our 35 day cruise around S. America, which had been pretty much carefree up until that last traumatic week in early March when it was fast becoming clear that COVID-19 was going to become a world wide pandemic, back to land was jarring. It took about three weeks for me to work through mourning what we had lost - the freedom to move around when and where we wished and the freedom to enjoy a thriving US economy. I had many days where I couldn't do much more than relocate from bed to sofa, and then from sofa back to bed each day. And I think I, we, needed that time to mourn, because COVID-19 is a death. It's a death not just in the literally sense of lives tragically lost, but also of a complete way of life.

But I've mourned, and I've let go. And in the letting go I've been able to make space for other things to enter. Our travels, for example, over the years have been absolutely amazing. We've traveled to 60 countries around the world, and 30 states here in the USA. But, I will admit, these last few trips felt just a little bit like we were doing them 'just because.' Just because we had the resources, just because we had the time. Not quite the same energy that sustained us during our earlier travel years, when we went because so much crazy excitement at the new adventures that awaited us we'd surely perish if we didn't go! So to a certain degree, it's a bit of a relief to have that monkey off our back for awhile. Instead, we'll be focused on getting our east coast family out here for a visit, and in a return to RV'ing up and down our beautiful western coastline.

In a similar fashion, our approach to entertainment had grown in scale each year. Little by little our calendar was filling up with lots and lots of pay-to-play entertainment options, because somehow staying at home stopped holding the same appeal as it did when we first moved here three years ago. Where we can watch the sunset show every night for free. So similarly, it's a bit of a relief to let that monkey go as well.

If our world has shrunk for the foreseeable future, I could live happily doing these things over and over and over:

• Frequent small gathering get togethers with family and friends.
• Walk/Bike/Hike along our local mountains and coastline.
• Kayak and SUP in our nearby harbors. 
• RV up and down our Pacific Ocean coastline.
• Backpack anywhere and everywhere driveable.
• Stream concerts and plays here at home, either for free or as a pay-for-view event.
• Order takeout meals from our favorite restaurants rather than dining in. So many options as to how and where to enjoy them - at home, at a park, at the beach, on the trail.

Not on the list above, and likely gone for the foreseeable future anyway, would be 1) pleasure travel involving trains, planes, ships, or hotels, 2) going to movies, plays, concerts, or talks, 3) attending Lifelong Learning lectures in person, 4) frequent restaurant dine outs, 5) in-person spiritual congregation gatherings, 6) athletic endurance events like running races, 7) theme parks and water parks with our granddaughters, and 8) significantly altered admission policies at museums of every shape and size.

Financially, our daughters' inheritance will likely continue to grow because of how much money we won't be spending in our post-COVID-19 world. So perhaps instead we will choose to direct additional funds to those organizations trying to make a difference in our world. And similar to the manner in which The Great Recession of 2008 - 2010 permanently altered the way we approached our finances - i.e., never, ever would we incur debt at any point in the future, nor allow our fixed expenses to rise - the great Pandemic of 2020 - (???) will likely permanently alter our willingness to be or go anywhere that places us shoulder to shoulder with other people.

So it will be different, for sure, but it won't necessarily be bad. Perhaps the difference is as simple as our attitudes? 

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows.

And the people began to think differently. And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed. 

- Kitty O’Meara. 

How about you? What changes do you think may become permanent in your life as a result of the pandemic?