It’s amazing to me what I see when I slow down. Pandemics (I guess?) have a way of doing that, making us pause and breathe and be attentive. There’s an emotional space I have now to lean back and let my brain swirl and my heart catch up with it. Normally I leave my heart in the dust, looking dejectedly on as I sprint down the track past my imaginary opponents.
So this space to be human, it turns out, is something I need. The other day I rested on our couch, shut my eyes for a bit, dozed off, opened them again. Just resting, laying there, with no other intention. I don’t believe I’ve done that for months.
Vaccines are little sicknesses, just enough to educate our physiology on the proper response. Maybe pandemics are like that too, but for the soul. Maybe that’s what you need, too. Maybe you don’t need immediate gratification or that vacation to Hawaii, although the flight $ are tempting these days.
Maybe you need to build in room to breathe.
