PAUSE AND REFLECT IN THE MIDST OF THE PANDEMIC

With the pandemic we have more time on our hands. Eventually, most of us will adjust and find ways to cope.

We may spend more time at our routine activities, take on something new or finally take on a project we keep putting off.

Soon we will be involved and active again.

On the other hand, it is an opportunity to get off the treadmill of busyness, acquisition and selfindulgence, to slow down, to take a break or just do nothing.

It’s a chance to ponder age-old questions: what is life about? What is important? Where am I going?

It is time to discover new worlds, to let go, to be open to the future, to look and listen, to be surprised.

As the song goes, “A hundred million miracles are happening every day.”

We miss most of them: a smile, a touch, a starlit night, a songbird, the taste of fresh bread, the aroma of coffee; the gifts of love, family, friends, freedom, peace. The song goes on, “All the miracles, but there are those who say they don’t agree, and those who do hear or see.”

William Blake urges us “To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and Eternity in an hour.”

We need to see through the eyes of a child with curiosity, wonder, and delight. There are miracles everywhere, we only need pay attention. Then the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and we realize that small is beautiful.

A life of simplicity, a heart of gratitude and living in the now will help us see more clearly. We may need to make a conscious and deliberate decision to change our life-style . The Shaker dance hymn describes another way: “’Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free, ’tis a gift to come down where you ought to be ,and when you find the place just right, ’twill be in the land of love and delight.”

Blake also knows that most of us don’t see clearly or only occasionally: “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man [sic] as it is. infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”

We need to identify what blurs and clouds our perception. Clear perception requires openness, gratitude, vulnerability, trust, letting go, generosity, reverence, compassion, curiosity and the like.

“Tuesdays with Morrie” is about a man suffering from a terminal illness and is paralyzed from head to toe.

The author, Mitch Albom, is a friend who makes a weekly visit. On one visit, Morrie tells his friend how he is touched by the flowers on the windowsill and the breeze that flutters through the open window. For him the ordinary is extraordinary, everything is a source of wonder and everything is precious.

Everett Hobbs Conception Bay South