March 2020 came and it’s like our super busy lives suddenly hit the emergency breaks. A virus had marked its presence; everything came to a standstill and life as we knew it took a good 360-degree turn.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been stressing, frightening, depressing, lonely, unsettling and distressing, to say the least. However, in my opinion, the novel coronavirus has also taught us to be grateful. Everything we took for granted for so long suddenly couldn’t be taken for granted anymore.
Over the years, us human beings have changed our priorities for the worse. We have somehow transformed ourselves into these machines who are slaves to their own profession. Always in this never-ending rat race to achieve fame, glory and success we have somehow forgotten to live. Our work, from being a part of our life, has somehow become our life, due to which we have been neglecting the people who really matter — our friends and family.
Remember the once-in-a-while phone call to our parents even when we could go and visit them in person? Or getting annoyed if they called in between work? Those lame happy birthday messages, exiting family WhatsApp groups, home deliveries for every dang thing? And how can we forget texting our sick friends and relatives to enquire about their health instead of going to meet them as we were “super busy”, yet somehow, always finding time for social media and longing for more “alone time”?
Well, now that this pandemic has given us all that we longed for, how is it working out for you? Why this intense feeling of anxiety and stress and a deep sense of alienation?
According to me, this pandemic has taught us a lot of things:
Simplicity: To find happiness in simple things. Just spending time with the people you love is enough.
Family gives security: Family is our safe haven and no matter what, we always return to them in difficult times.
Gratitude: Being thankful for little things like food on our plates and a roof on our head.
Health: Money once gone can come back, but health is not an option and should not be taken for granted.
Belief: Find some time to pray. It helps maintain equilibrium and our prayers never go in vain, for God is always watching over us.
Materialism: It is fleeting and will get you nowhere.
Creativity: It has given us time to bring out our creative side and it turns out, all of us are either painters, artists, content creators, writers or storytellers.
If you can read this article today, remember that you are privileged. Man is a social animal and living in isolation is not one of our traits. I don’t really know what “normal life” would look like post-pandemic. However, I hope we will remember that it took a pandemic for us to realise. But well, the season is not yet over and we are far from getting over or used to this “change”. So, for now, I guess we can just hope for the best, love ourselves and the people around us and remember to always count our blessings.