4/11/2020 0 Comments Wake Up! The Sun is ShiningI woke up today to sunshine and the world looked much brighter. My spirits lifted. It has been dark and rainy here is So Cal for weeks. We are not used to that. Yes, you can call us spoiled, but add that onto the social isolation and staying safe at home of the last month, the prognosis has been pretty sad. But the sun has come out! I feel better even if I can't run to the mountains to see the snow from the recent storms. I can take a walk (wearing a mask of course) and I can work in my yard again. The air is fresh and clean. Not only because the rain washed it, but because traffic is minimal, planes are grounded and industry is limited. And just look at the random acts of kindness going on all around us! Yes, I know this is collateral damage of a global pandemic, but I also know it is a wake up call for what we have done to our world. If we don't re-evaluate everything and start to change for the better, if we just go back to "normal", well, it will have been for naught. Wake up. Let the sunshine in. We can beat this. I remember many years ago songs about that celebrated letting the sunshine in. Like Let the Sunshine In from Hair and You are My Sunshine from way way back. Sunshine on My Shoulders by John Denver, and of course Tomorrow from Annie. May these be our soundtrack for today. There is reason for hope. Here are some versions of the above sounds that are worth a listen:
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4/10/2020 0 Comments Is There Always a Reason?I'm sitting in my home, isolated from social interactions, trying to figure out what is happening...and why. I often say it is best to tell me something rather than to leave it to my imagination. I will, being human as I am, creative some narrative that may or may not be accurate. But I also resist speculating any more. Whether I'm right or I'm wrong, it doesn't matter in the end. Some things just are what they are, with no rhyme, no reason. So here I am wondering about this pandemic and how it got started and why we weren't ready for it and a myriad of other castings about for a reason why this happened. The only thing I can come up with is that what is going on with our world right now it happening for a reason. Perhaps we will find out. Perhaps not. But the bottom line is, it is happening and we are going to be forever changed by it...probably, if we are smart. That makes me think that maybe the reason an opportunistic virus such as this one spread. It was time. We were ripe. The world, as it was, was headed for the proverbial "hell in a hand basket." One way or another, we were gonna have to do something to save ourselves. And this is our chance. For many years I was uncomfortable shaking hands. I finally became able to offer my hand freely. And hugging, well I took to that like that duck into water. But now that may be something we cannot do for a very long time...maybe forever. Going with human touch will be quite an adjustment, but perhaps it was where we were headed anyway as things like social media and virtual reality made actual human interaction less and less the norm. So here we are. So is there always a reason? Yes and no. And that's the rub. For every reason there's a question, a challenge. And to say something just are, is deeply unsatisfactory. So I will continue to meditate, noodle, ponder and wonder about all this, the reason being, there is always an answer. And if we are lucky, we find it before our time has passed. It is not that easy to stay home and keep calm at the same time. I had a minor momentary melt down a little while ago when I suddenly was overwhelmed by this feeling of why? Why bother? It suddenly hit me that this might not end quickly. That this is the new normal. Well I don't like it. But who am I to complain? We are all in the same proverbial boat. So I composed myself and here I am...thinking and musing in random fashion.
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Rob McMurray,
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