11 opportunities to make life better in these crazy days

Despite the anxiety, and notwithstanding the last-minute planning, opportunities do present themselves within the present day.

Here are just eleven:

1.                 To sing or play or communicate or laugh with a neighbour, from the end of each other’s driveways, or from window to window.  We’ve seen what the inventive Italians have done, and I’ve heard a street will dance together.  Time to be creative.  Opportunities to talk with people we ordinarily wouldn’t.

2.                 Families will spend more time together, and whilst the opportunity for conflict and dissension is ever present, so are opportunities to work through relationship challenges.  Hopefully we can’t give up on each other as much as we could otherwise.  (Though prayers remain for those who find themselves in unsafe homes!)

3.                 Families may get sick of eating in front of the TV and move back to the dining room table.  They might get their board games and card games out of the cupboard.  When the internet is down, family members will be encouraged to chat and play with one another.

4.                 This unprecedented time will force us all to slow down and to take stock and to consider the truly important things in life.  We may have been resisting this for years.  But now’s the time.

5.                 We will learn to live without sports and live entertainment.  We will have the opportunity to cast our minds back and to reflect on things we used to enjoy.  We may begin to think more deeply about life.

6.                 For a lot of people, a forced sabbatical has come.  There are those who did not know how they would get through 2020.  Those who struggle just to keep up every year.  For a silent majority of people, the uncertainty is mixed with hope for change, and possibly true rest.

7.                 For those for whom lock downs present a massive challenge to energy and logistics, there is the opportunity of difficult choices to be made.  It’s an opportunity, because the decision will have to be made.

8.                 Take the day, the week, the month, the year as a reset.  Who would have thought that everyone gets the same opportunity at the same time?  Now that the future is so uncertain, we can opt to live for this day and this day alone.  No more getting ahead of ourselves.

9.                 We may finally be able to break some of those toxic patterns of materialism and consumerism — of reliance on things that overall are not good for us.  Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.

10.              To think of those less fortunate than ourselves — and vast is the number of them.  The medically compromised, the homeless, the destitute, those with special needs, those with mental health concerns, and those who could burn out under all this pressure.  Our opportunity is to pray and to give practical support where we can.

11.              Now is the time for kindness and to outdo people with our kindnesses.  People are actually thinking more about doing acts of random kindness than ever before.

Can you think of any to contribute?

Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash