COVID-19 is changing our lives and the world as we know it.  The attitudes we bring and how we respond both globally and personally to those changes determines the struggle or ease with which our lives evolve going forwards.  We do have choice over how our world is when we emerge on the other side of this crisis.

Life on planet Earth was already out of balance.  A world in which nearly a billion people are starving, while others watch cooking shows.  A world with a longstanding history of humans killing humans in endless wars.  A world in which we are destroying our home, this planet, in spite of our apparent intelligence, by denying the proven reality of global warming.  A world that values money, consumerism and power over love, compassion and wisdom.

With COVID-19 denial and resistance do not work.  This virus demands that we pay attention.  It insists we make it the highest priority, even above the economy!  All our values are being thrown up in the air and landing in different places!  Arising from the suffering and devastation, could there also be new possibilities?

It is interesting to note the parallels between the affect of the virus on humans and the affect of humans on the planet.  The primary symptom of the virus is a temperature, congestion/fluid on the lungs can make it fatal.  Global warming is about temperature increases and rising water levels.  All is connected.

Individually the emotional impact is huge and unique to each of us. Many people, at the disruption of their lives, are experiencing anxiety, grief and frustration.  It is impacting behaviour and physical health. Change and uncertainty have become the new way of being and they have never sat easily with us humans!

We may not be able to control what is happening in the external, physical world, but internally, how we think about it and how we feel about it are things we do have responsibility for.  How we each move from resistance to acceptance and response determines our experience of these changes.

The word “crisis” in Chinese is represented by the two symbols for danger and opportunity.  Already we are seeing benefits to the environment such as reduction in pollution with reduced human activity.  There is a human benefit too in a shift towards greater awareness of our connection and interdependence.  We can decide this is terrible and should never have happened and fight with what is, or we can be curious about and open to the possibilities for positive outcomes.  How would we like the new world to be?