It’s a Pandemic … What Will You Create?

So we find ourselves in a new phase of the world’s largest crisis since World War II. Instead of staying put in our homes, and endlessly washing our hands, we are being invited to emerge. Carefully.

And yet, nothing is or will be the same for a long time to come. And it will be this way until a vaccine for COVID-19 is administered the world over.

So … what’s going to change for you? And what will be the same?

For most of us, SIP restrictions have been a massive exercise in thinking creatively. My gospel choir is now solidly launched as a virtual musical experience. Just three months ago we rehearsed in an Oakland church, rocking, clapping and singing our hearts out to the electric praise band. Then some big choirs reported COVID deaths and infections, and live choral singing ground to a halt.

We found our workaround. Our spring performance was built by editing zoom videos of us singing to a click track of our previous performances. Rehearsals now happen on Zoom. We still sing our hearts out, but we’re all muted and singing in the privacy of our own homes. Yet, we all love it. At least 100 of us keep showing up.

This has taught us all one big thing: this choir is about serious community. And the ideas and innovations just keep on coming, as we are seen by more and more people. Instead of just performing for 300 people in a packed concert hall, our latest video has been seen by 1300 people around the world so far. And more come along every day.

During the pandemic, I’ve also discovered I love to knead bread dough and grow food in my garden. My wife and I found all sorts of old seed packets tucked in the back of drawers around the house, so we planted them all. And damn if there aren’t a LOT of yellow squash plants coming in. (Who knew ten-year-old seeds would still grow?)

Making sourdough pizza was a similar experience. The sourdough starter a neighbor gave me perked along for a few weeks in my refrigerator, while I balked about how to use it. Bread seemed like such a commitment, I was sure I would fail. And pancakes were … well … not that exciting. Then the pizza idea was born, and suddenly I was in business.

I discovered that kneading dough for ten minutes is an incredible mix of meditation, baking and massage. The feel of the dough in my hands was surprisingly reassuring. I suddenly felt connected to the earth, in sync with the slow rotation of the planet. If I could make a beautiful sourdough pizza from scratch … well, then, everything was going to be alright.

It occurred to me that we don’t really know what each day will bring now—especially if we’ve lost our jobs, or are suddenly homeschooling children while we work from home. So this has become a time for great creativity.

Really, that’s all we’ve got. Yet, I’m finding we are remarkably resourceful.

For instance, if you don’t feel comfortable going out for, say, a Starbucks run … why not learn to make your own inexpensive stovetop espresso? If you’re casting about for homemade learning experiences for your kids, why not teach them about growing food from seeds? Or share with them those old photo albums you haven’t opened, or even thought about in years.

Most of us already have everything we need to be fulfilled and complete in this life.

This has been one of my big takeaways from this time. Even if it seems like we have relatively little.

Once you slow down and pull in your sails, as we’ve all been forced to, you look around and take stock. And you see what’s working, what isn’t, and so you implement changes. You also discover pleasures you’d forgotten all about. Like not commuting.

Twitter announced it would be asking all of its employees to permanently work from home. Perhaps, like Twitter, you’re finding it really works for you to telecommute. Think how much more self-care you could add to a life that didn’t include a standard commute. Perhaps it would be easy to create an effective home office, and even nicer to be home when your kids arrived after school.

Perhaps, when you get right down to it, you don’t even need to be a two-car family. Maybe one of your vehicles could be an electric bicycle, or a Vespa, or …. The possibilities are endless, friend.

Perhaps the quarantine helped you to discover new ways to relate to your kids, or learn together as you adjust to homeschooling them. What might the next homeschool learning adventure be after they go back to school?

Maybe you’ve lost a job that wasn’t a great job to begin with. So here’s your chance to pivot. What would you replace it with? An event planner I know has been learning to set up virtual meetings. And in the process, her natural desire to rein in our carbon footprints has been stimulated. Now she’s thinking that’s where a second business may lie.

Whatever your situation is, friend, you can create a new, better solution. One that serves you, and others as well.

For me, this time has given me a wonderful window to do two things. I’ve finished the latest draft of my memoir … AND I’m about to launch a podcast, Back to Happy, with Debi Granger. Her daughter got Teal’s heart and kidney.

As Debi likes to say, Loss makes us stronger … if we let it.

May this new emergence be your launch pad to an entirely new, happier, better way to live.

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