Coronavirus Diaries: I am not sick, but I am not well

As published in The Brentwood Press on Jul 14, 2020

I will be the first to confess. I truly expected things to go back to normal by now. After all, I have been behaving. I have been social distancing, understanding the measure of 6 feet, wearing masks in public, and going up the correct aisle of whichever arrow is pointing at Safeway. Well, I will admit, most of the time. And I feel terribly guilty if I have to clear my throat in public behind a mask. I was raised that if I behaved, I would be rewarded. And for parents who are so ready to get a break and move the children back to school, you are probably understanding that teachers are underpaid at this point.

As we press the realities of this virus, we wonder about our own views. Of course, we want the economy to be better, and we want our children to have a full education. But then there are these unknowns and things we really do not have the power to fully control. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could fall back to our childhood when things seemed so innocent and simple? I can guarantee that with all the lessons our parents taught to include being afraid of strangers, there was never a conversation on how to run from an unpredictable disease, at least not in my childhood. So what did they successfully teach us when we had to cope with any difficult situation?

Shirzad Chamine, the expert on positive intelligence defines the sage in all of us.

He states, “The sage is the deeper and wiser part of you. It is the part that can rise above the fray … the drama and tension of the moment.”

The sage is curious, empathetic and thinks outside the box to find solutions. These are the tools we all have in us, whether from upbringing or life’s experiences.

In this period of pause, I may feel I am not sick, but I am aware that what is happening to us is not well. I know that my deeper, inner self has the tools to be compassionate, curious and solution-minded. Each day I thrive to bring out the best, because that is what makes us better – as individuals, as family, as a community, and as a nation. We all can be sages. Isn’t that the most important gift we learned in childhood, whether from our parents, our teachers or our ministers? We can all be well again. Let’s turn this Coronavirus Diary into what we strive to be. Make it a diary of growth with a positive ending.

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