Rainbows of hope

The last two weeks have been quite a year, haven’t they?

It’s so bizarre to be living history. Yes, I understood the 9-11 attacks to be a moment in history. And yes, that day forever changed the way we travel and sense safety. But that day…and those scary but unifying days that followed…felt smaller and less global than what we are living at the moment.

The change to daily life over the past couple weeks has been dizzying. The cleaning. The shopping. The preparing. The isolating. The cooking.

There is so much fear. Which is understandable, because uncertainty is fear’s best friend. But in the midst of this raging storm that is pelting the planet, I am seeing…and actively seeking…rainbows of hope.

I’ve been calling this moment “A Big Reset.”

I can’t be the only one who has felt society getting harder, meaner, more distant, less personally connected, and far too fast and busy. More and more, there seemed to be little breathing room and not much time for simple things…although always time for just one more game of Candy Crush or one more sweep through Facebook.

But suddenly, seemingly over just a matter of days, most of the world has been gifted time. Time…the one resource that is non-discriminant and equally distributed.

Certainly, there are people who are working longer and harder than they ever have in their careers (thank you, medical people and delivery people and grocery people). But for the bulk of society…around the world…we are being asked to stop. Stop living life the way we have grown accustom. And for that I am grateful.

Just in my own little world, I have seen parents and kids riding bikes together in the middle of the day. Families are gardening and doing yard work and building things. Neighbors are offering to share resources. Dinners are together, without screens. Practical skills like laundry and car repair and cooking are being learned. Younger people are making deliveries to older people. People are making donations or pre-paying for services they have no idea when will be rendered. Creativity is on overdrive with new ways to connect, reach out, and be together. Problems are being solved with ingenuity and inspiration that MacGyver would envy. Hobbies are being resumed. Daily walks are being introduced. Phone calls…with voices instead of pixels…are being made.

It’s like we are all suddenly, finally, waking up and noticing each other.

I have no idea what our world and society will look like at the end of all of this. I know it will never be the same. Our world is shifting and reprioritizing and refocusing in huge and miniscule and incredibly important ways. Ways that are evident now and ways that will slowly reveal themselves over a generation.

Change is scary. But change is not bad; it’s just different. I am filled with and fueled by hope and excitement to see who we are…as a culture, a nation, and a global community…at the end of this chapter in tomorrow’s history books. Because in the midst of the heartbreak there is hope.