Unfurling; what shall we become?

I would argue that the past year reintroduced us to ourselves, and whether we like or dislike the self we have come to know is a separate matter. We cannot deny that there has been a revival. Some took advantage of the semblance of the slowing down of time and found joy in activities they had lost as the world whipped by hastily. Equally as valid is the reality that this past year delivered a thrashing on the souls of many. Despondence and loss can only begin to describe the realities for some in this new normal.

We fell into absolute discord with our usual estimation of harmony. We were carrying on, and gradually a wave progressed from a whisper in one part of the world into a raging storm and deafening chaos across others. Callously, we shifted blame when the murmurs began. We could have espoused a communal spirit and maybe even rushed to see about our fellow man; instead, we chose to reposition our gaze with spite and taunting slander. Then, as is often the case when the elements move, we were met at dawn with a catastrophe the likes of which we’d never seen or heard. Shock, jive, and shimmy; we scrambled in absolute commotion with nowhere to turn. A pandemic greeted us with no mercy leaving homes scattered and families broken. A ship adrift, a captain misguided.

My angle is not to reiterate the bedlam we experienced. We each know how we reacted to the initial confusion and the ensuing uncertainty. It is still unfolding. What I wonder about is who we will have become when it is all said and done. This past weekend with one complete revolution around the sun, we were reminded, and in most instances with exact precision, where we were when it became apparent that life as we’d known it may never be the same.

Now I ponder these: Where am I? Who am I? Where are you? Who are you?

We are here, so we must see the blessing that we even get to ask. Others weren’t as fortunate. What will we become? We might just revert to our tricks of old or surprise ourselves with our rebirth in better versions adorned with the trinkets of improved interactions, love, compassion, and the insatiable need for unity. I surely hope the latter case holds, for it would be a damn shame to relapse into the vile chaos we once knew. No one owns the crystal ball, and everyone’s vantage point is unique, yet I pray we can manage a perfect union of all of our views into a cohesive marriage of faiths and convictions that will serve as markers of the bruises of this past orbit. Let’s hope that we have learned a lesson or two.

Better years will come. Let us rise to meet them with better attitudes. Some will emerge benefactors of time well-spent during this hiatus of sorts, and others will have encountered the demons of having been enmeshed in this conscious slumber. Yet others will fall in-between. Wherever you land, whatever the journey, I am holding out hope that those who have been blessed with the steadfastness to remain even-keeled will show compassion for the ones to whom time and the ordeal have not been kind.

Oh, how resounding a victory it would be if, like unfurling flora, we all opened up to the birth of our best and brightest selves. It shall be well.