Category: friendship

March 17, 2020

By Toni O’Keeffe

So here we are, living in times that resemble the script for a Hollywood blockbuster movie that no one ever dreamt could come to life. Tom Hanks even had a supporting role.

Mother Nature wants her planet back and perhaps Covid19 is a call-to-action from her to us.

As Covid19 slaps the “Sorry we’re closed” sign across the globe, and we lock down, shut down, self isolate and socially distance ourselves from one another, families are gathering around the kitchen table (some for the first time in awhile) to sort out, what’s next?

We’re being forced to rethinking how and where we live, learn, work, play and, how we take care of one another and the planet (which BTW is our only home).

Before Covid19 stormed onto the scene, humanity couldn’t get our environmental act together. Despite a huge global outcry to address climate change and poor environmental performance, very little has changed. So mother nature has stepped in to take over. World leaders could never have mobilized to bring the world together and clean up the way this virus has.

As factories, industry and businesses shut down and people stay off the roads, out of the sky, off the rails(no pun intended), off the seas, and toxins are removed from the air, we see blue skies emerging over parts of the world that haven’t seen blue sky for decades.

As people stay home, out of stadiums, arenas, bars, restaurants and retail outlets, we are consuming less, buying less and discarding less. While the pandemic is making human beings sick, it is giving the planet a chance to heal.

Although early behaviours of hoarding and price gouging surfaced, global citizens quickly reacted with outrage and pushed back. We are starting to take care of one another in ways that perhaps we don’t always do. We are checking in on our vulnerable family members, friends and neighbours. Families are reconnecting. Parents are off their work phones and playing with their children, and as we saw in Italy, Spain and Amsterdam, people are making beautiful music together.

During this crisis people are figuring out how to work and learn from home. Employers are becoming more flexible and retailers are rethinking their supply chains, especially international supply chains. Imagine how we could reduced our environmental footprint if we kept some of these practices in place after Covid19 moves on?

A post I read earlier this week talked about this being a time to pause and reset. I agree. This is a time for business, industry, governments, families and citizens to do things differently.

Unfortunately there has been loss of life resulting from Covid19 and my heart aches for those families. I know the anguish of that loss and its horrible. Others have lost income, work, time in the classroom, surgeries have been cancelled. It’s been hard.

There has also been beautiful acts of grace and a commitment to one another. The efforts of our healthcare system have been extraordinary.
Those involved in transporting goods and services, and those involved in our food chain supply are hero’s. There are teachers doing online tutorials for students while schools are closed. Arts, cultural and entertainment venues are streaming plays, performances and concerts for free to keep people occupied during this crisis.

These acts are positive signs that as a human race we have it in us to be kind, compassionate and loving to each other. At our core this is who we are. Somewhere along the path of human evolution in the busyness of being human, we lost our way, this is an opportunity to find ourselves again.

There is now a generation of children that are bearing witnessed to and will remember what happened during Covid19. As they grow into our worlds leaders, CEOs of large corporations, healthcare professionals, teachers and others, they will remember these days. They will develop practices and learning to mitigate events like this in the future. They will remember how problems were solved and solved quickly.

Maybe a pandemic was what the world needed, to slow us down, to bring us to our knee, to allow us to look at ourselves differently and evaluate how and where we live, learn, work, play and protect our planet.

Out of the darkness comes light.
And I believe there will be an explosion of light at the end of this pandemic. We’re already beginning to see it shine.
Toni O’K ~🌹❤️