Decisions make history. I heard this sentence recently and it made me think.

As our national lock-down embeds itself into our daily lives, I thought of the many decisions that have been made. Some leave me with a sense of profound gratitude, others with a sense of relief that they are not mine to make. I don’t know what your personal circumstances are as you read this blogpost.  Like everyone you are probably trying to put structure on these strange days amidst certain fears for the future. 

While we get on with this new normal, the new busyness that comes from running a home, and working from home, we can feel as if we are in some sort of doctors’ waiting room waiting for someone to say it will be all ok so we can get back to normal. We can find ourselves going from one news update to another with worsening statistics. We are left with the sensation that we have no control. To say that this feels different to our usual 21st century existence is an understatement. 

We have never been here before. We have never been prepared for this.  This is the stuff of movies except this time we are in the cast.  If you feel this is not normal, you are right.  We cannot click the undo or reset button on this one and make this feel ok.  Human beings are thankfully more complex than that. We need to get our heads around what this means - for me personally. 

Talk about it, share with someone you love how you feel.

Do you feel scared? Vulnerable? We have hearts and heads and sometimes we forget the wisdom of the heart. Life is not all to do lists, projections, goals and success stories. These days we need to build in those moments where we and our loved ones have space to respond, react, be listened to and understood.  We will find our sense of vulnerability is a shared one. We will feel the permission to be human and as a result we will all feel more supported in it all.  

Be brave and make decisions to live differently.

Decisions make history, have the courage to adjust your expectations and reframe your life and those of your loved ones according to your values. How often we tell ourselves our priorities and values and yet if we are sincere with ourselves they are a little theoretical.  Now is the chance to make those core values lived realities.  Pope Francis recently reminded the world,

“We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us.  

And don’t underestimate the importance of what you do everyday.  

“How many fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers are showing our children, in small everyday gestures, how to face up to and navigate a crisis by adjusting their routines, lifting their gaze and fostering prayer”