Who is This Person Walking Around Inside My Skin?

When all is said and done, life tends to assume its own path and we toddle along, making the best we can of the situation as it arises.

But when CHANGE comes knocking, we sit up and pay attention.

So COVID-19 comes along and suddenly the unknown, the specter of Death, peers into the window of our souls and as one being, humanity locks down.

It was brilliant. A humble virus, with its ability to mutate at need or whimsy, steps into its power and its power is mighty indeed.

It said, “Enough! You have taken this human experiment as far as I am willing to let you go. Now STOP.”

And so we did.

With astounding determination everything, well, most everything, ground to a screeching halt.

And Nature, in her lovely and determined way, went into high gear self-repair. Perhaps it’s the cleaner air that makes the colors so saturated this year. The cardinals more red, blue jays richer blue, goldfinches more golden. Perhaps the cleaner air sends the bird song further offering their delight for all the world to hear.

Might the Earth be saying, “Thank you, virus!

“You who defy definition, who refuse to be categorized, who mutates wildly, who runs rampant through so-called civilization. You have brought humanity to a standstill. 

“Thank you for this space to rediscover balance.”

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This version of reality, interestingly enough, can bring us to our power as well; the power to choose, a potent power.

Choosing our actions and even our thoughts is a tricky place to recognize. It arises and disappears in the blink of an eye. We spend much of our time living on automatic pilot. We walk through our days doing the next thing and then the next as though our lists were important. We schedule ourselves so tightly we can hardly turn around much less consider larger questions.

But COVID-19 gives us the opportunity to look at our lives and our choices more closely. Now, with many of the demands of daily life put on hold, we can actually ask:

Who is this person walking around inside my skin?

When I actually pay attention, I can and do ask myself questions like this. Each time I ask my answer offers me a way forward that is consistent with my values.

As anyone who has attempted to sit in meditation can tell you, the mind loves to wander. The mind, demanding diversion, offers up story upon story. 

The mind gets cranky. It gets bored. It gets restless, sleepy. There are a myriad of ways our minds challenge us. It’s when we go back on automatic pilot that the opportunity to choose blurs. And we return to habitual patterns.

What would happen if, like Nature herself, we took this opportunity offered us by COVID-19 to notice the moment, that nano-second of choice. It is always available if we can catch it. It waits for us hoping that we will pay attention.

 

Choice suggests that we pay attention in the moment and notice who we become when we chose to be the person we want to be.

What would happen if we stepped up into our lives and noticed our choices? 

What might happen in our world if we stepped into personal responsibility for our own lives, for our own choices? 

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