I have found many good uses through the years for the quotation, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Apparently, Winston Churchill said it long before Rahm Emanuel toward the end of WWII. As we inch toward the end of the pandemic of 2020, I cringe to think of how quickly we will go back to the way things were before everything turned upside down.
What if we don’t go back?
What if we took the lessons we learned with us to build a changed future?
Recently, I was reading a new favorite book on healing, “Living From The Heart Jesus Gave You.” At the beginning, it asks the question, “Why does community not work as it once did?” The list is quite clear:
– Hours and hours in front of television sets
– Many more hours on the computer
– Close friends and family moving away
– Neighbors remaining strangers, not friends
– Churches calling themselves the family of God but not acting like it
– Nobody dropping by to share moments of unexpected joy
– No one to help with a crisis
– Food being gulped with precious little time to talk
– Family members eating separately and not sharing mealtimes
– Urgency about getting many tasks done “now”
– Maintaining a hectic schedule that allows no free time
– Parent feeling overwhelmed with too many commitments
In addition to this, we could include the epidemic of recent years: The Loneliness Epidemic.
As I read this list, I couldn’t help but to have a moment of great hope. How many of these flaws have been turned on their head since 26 March 2020?
In an attempt to not let this crisis go to waste, I’m taking four main lessons with me:
Slowing Down
Early on in the pandemic, a friend of mine, a banking executive who was living in New York, moved down to his rural home in Virginia. In one-fell-swoop, he has been able to set aside the busyness of the busiest city in the world (after living there for 10 years, I can attest first hand) and instead chooses a life that speaks to his soul.
Just by way of sitting still and doing our work from one location, I have been able to be excessively more productive. This space has given me the luxury to be flexible with my time and take long pauses to connect with those around me.
Thinking Generously
In April as the world started to go a bit topsy-turvy, I started to write down the silver linings of the pandemic. My family’s goal was 99, but we kept going far beyond. Eventually, that list became a daily post called “30 Days of Kindness,” where I had the chance to give a face to all these new types of generosity I was experiencing. A favourite was the knock and dash where you knock on someone’s door and leave a special treat for them anonymously.
There seems to have been a shift in thinking from “mainly me” to “more often you.” From these learnings I have been living by a practice called J.O.Y. that you can read more about HERE.
We have pushed ourselves beyond our islands of independence to see how we can instead ensure someone else’s safety and wellbeing.
Living Closer to Family
In September, my little one will have spent the majority of his life in the pandemic. One of the great blessings during this time was having the foresight to move close to my elderly parents. I have only found pluses to this way of living and wonder why we started moving farther and farther apart in the first place. A few of the pluses include:
1. Learning to get over our squabbles much faster
2. Having additional moral support for difficult days of parenting
3. Allowing my little one the joys of being loved daily by grandparents
4. Do I even have to say, CHILD CARE? I couldn’t have ventured into becoming an entrepreneur without this support.
5. Being an extra caretaker for my elderly parents
Someone recently reminded me that the very large homes in prominent neighborhoods in my city were not ever meant to be single-family homes. They were originally homes for three, sometimes four, generations. If you put three or four of your incomes together, imagine the interesting home-buying options that could be available.
Connecting to Community
I joke sometimes that it took me 10 years to realise that years of living abroad didn’t mean freedom, it just meant independence. What I’ve found, especially during COVID, is that we have an incredible opportunity to grow just by loving those closest to us.
For me, this looks like online support for people in our church, connecting daily with people on our walks in the neighbourhood, and supporting people who were only acquaintances prior to the pandemic.
There doesn’t seem to be acquaintances anymore. It’s as if we have all gone through this together and are forever connected. Let’s hope that sentiment continues for a very long time.