Looking Up – Reflections on COVID19, Spring/Summer 2020
/In less than a month from the release of Looking Up, our entire world and lives have become focused on our health and safety as it relates to Covid 19 and the associated fears, risks, and losses. As the situation changes literally by the minute, it can be hard not to become consumed by the outbreak. Finding any silver linings in this may seem impossible, but as I have had time to reflect, I am brought back to some key lessons from the pages of Looking Up.
1. “Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.”
We are all going to need help to make it through this crisis. Help can come in many forms, specifically for this situation the elderly will need help to safely obtain their medication, groceries, and other necessary household items. Healthcare professionals will help all of us, with testing, treatment, and hopefully eventually administration of a vaccination. In order for all of us to do our best in this situation, we will need to view asking for the help we need as a strength. Furthermore, those in a position to safely offer help must do so as well. It does not need to come in the form of expensive or ostentatious. If you see an opportunity to make this situation easier for someone, even if they don’t ask, please do so.
2. “Find a new line of sight.”
It is true that we are prone to seeing problems rather than opportunities. While the Covid19 outbreak is an obvious problem- can we also find some new opportunities here as well? In a time when our lives have become so busy and centered around activities outside the home, we now must re-learn what it is to effectively be a family. Remember those board games in the top of the closet? Have you been meaning to teach your teenager how to balance a bank account? Need to do some math lessons? Bake some cookies and double the recipe. While these days may be long for many families that are used to being on the go, I truly believe that many relationships will be strengthen by this time together.
3. “It takes a village.”
I ask for help. Everything I am and everything I have is possible because of the people that help me on a daily basis. My family, my doctors, my colleagues, my friends, and even perfect strangers help me- they’re my village. In this instance, we all have to understand that the Covid19 outbreak is greater than us as individuals. By practicing social distancing, we are not only protecting ourselves, but lessening and slowing the spread of the virus so that other, and especially those with higher risk factors, are not exposed unnecessarily. It is for the greater good that we all have to play our part in this. Choose to be a positive part of this village and as a community, we can strengthen our bonds and our ability to stand together in the face of challenges.
4. “Looking Up”
Let’s change our perspective on this and turn obstacles in to assets. Not to negate the seriousness of this situation. However, this thing is real, it is here, it will run its course, and our communities and villages will be here on the other side. This is an opportunity to learn more about each other, to find the value that all of us bring. We will miss many of the resources we have come so used to enjoying and relying upon: restaurants, libraries, education institutions, non-essential healthcare providers. When we return to our new normal, we will be far more appreciative of the people that make those things possible. We will look up to each other for increased support and come out of this valuing each other in a whole new way.
