“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu
We have been dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic for almost three months now and it has impacted all of us. This isn’t like Ebola that happened in Africa, and we heard about it on the news. Every person on Planet Earth has been affected by Covid-19. Our lives have been turned upside down. We have been working from home, schools have been closed, some of us lost jobs, and even worse. The impact has been far reaching and there is a lot of unknown.
Nothing like Covid-19 has happened in our lifetime and it caught us off-guard. I doubt anyone thought about this when making New Years’ Resolutions for 2020. I know that I certainly didn’t.
When we first learned about the virus, we were told that it is a novel virus, meaning that we had no information about it and what impact it would have on society. We were essentially the blind leading the blind. Countries around the world went on lockdown to “flatten the curve”. Businesses closed, schools closed, trips were cancelled, weddings were cancelled, and we didn’t know for how long. We listened to our governments and we did what was asked of us.
We developed anxiety and fear. We asked questions such as, “What if I get sick, who protects my family?” “Will I have my job” “How do I pay the rent/mortgage”. This became our new reality. Since this is a novel virus, we don’t have a road map of how to navigate the situation, which makes the fear of the unknown that much greater. We can only take our best and most educated guesses.
However, the antidote to fear of the unknown is Hope. As the quote above says, there is light despite all of the darkness. Hope allows you to see that. We have seen stories about people helping each other out and bringing food, teachers going to their students’ homes to say hello from a distance, and people getting married over Zoom. Each of these kind gestures is an example of hope.
We haven’t let the pandemic beat us and the reason why is hope (and a lot of wonderful people working on the front lines). Hope allows us to have a positive mindset and see that there is a future. Hope allows us to have something to look forward to. Hope reminds us that the pandemic will end and that while our lives will be forever changed, our lives may not necessarily be worse off due to the change. The pandemic forced us out of our comfort zone, but hope gives us the opportunity to create new comfort.
If you find yourself unable to get motivated, full of anxiety, or depressed, make a list of some things that bring you hope. Doing this will help you see that there is light even in the darkness. We will get beyond Covid-19 and we will enter the light. If you are having trouble finding hope, call me and we can work together.
