(photo P Volker)
All of a sudden an image appeared to me about our present condition. I mean our condition of being in the midst of this Coronavirus quagmire presently. Are we in the belly of the whale as Jonah was? Are we that guy?
We are mistaken if we think that we can somehow drink or medicate our way through this whole deal. We have work to do or we have something to learn here or understand here that is important. We’ve been dropped in the middle of a maze and the only way forward is to learn the lessons and navigate our way out.
Navigate out or get coughed up on the shore, either way we are not ready yet. There seems plenty more to do, understand, formulate, consider before that graduation occurs. We have to put in the time and effort appropriate to the problem. We are not even asking the right questions yet but we are learning patience in the process.
But life goes on in a truncated sort of manner. Making do with less is in vogue. Going on with plan B or C is getting very familiar. We are learning flexibility. I have this photo image stuck in my head from the Great Depression of the 30’s of this guy that had hitched up his team of horses to the front bumper of his car. He had popped out the windshield, was sitting in the front seat and handling the reins as they come in over the hood of the car. Crazy but there it was.
So, here we go being flexible and patient. We know those two things work. Ah, and then there is discipline. The discipline of social distancing and mask wearing works and we will be doing for a while. Ah, yes.
How do we become cheerful in all this loves, Felipé.
The belly of the whale! That’s a good one. Wonder if Jonah had anything good to read down there?
Trying to be patient, and figure out the gift,
Henriette Anne
That a girl Henriette. This is our main job now. Felipé.x
Hi boss,
Some people have asked me how is it that you are my friend and I love you as much as I do… I now have this post to share with them and say: “This is why”.
This is the most common sense thought I have read these days… there are lots of emotional posts, all about gratitude to health workers and clerks in supermarkets and truck drivers and farmers… But then, there is “us”.
“Us”, the ones who want to do something with this experience we have to live; the ones who actually want to L.I.V.E. it and not go through it untouched… Remember the conversation we had about “pilgrimaging” and “hiking” the Camino? Kind of like the same thought here… And I think, that while the “former normal” would have allowed us to meet this August in the Veranda 2020 Edition (and I cannot tell how i feel about the fact it won’t happen), it was NOT good. It was comfortable and known, but it was not good for us… like our lives before going to the Camino… they were comfortable and known to us… but they had this other potential to be better… to be fuller… to be richer… to be wider… and to get there, we had to walk with the weight of our backpacks, and with blisters in our feet, and with back pain, and sleep in crowded albergues in a sleeping bag sometimes on the floor or a worn mattress, and the following day still walk 25k under the sun (or the rain)… yet, none of us can tell today that our lives were better than after enduring that…
So, yes, we are in the belly of the whale… in the middle of the maze… or as I think it these days: in the middle of the Meseta: already “organized” in the walking (how to do groceries, how to clean up the items, how to handle the mask, how to Zoom, how to have drinks over the screens, etc.) and now, we are in the part when we need to deal with our “minds”… we don’t have any more the “distractions of the new” to engage our minds on, we now need to go inwards… and be with ourselves, and use it to reflect, and think-over, and make-overs… Only after that, it will come the green lands of Galicia… to celebrate what we have learnt and the enthusiasm to arrive to the end of it, SO WE CAN APPLY IT IN THE WORLD AND OUR LIVES. But… you know… the meseta is quite a deal, it is hard, boring, tiring, hot, some days are not so engaging, some days you wonder why you punish yourself doing that, some other days you feel proud that you just put your backpack and despite all, you went out to walk…
There we are… There I AM for sure…
And what I love the most is to know I am walking with you, as you let me know with this post.
This is why you love your fellow pilgrims, Love,
Cris
Cris ~ I am sorry that I didn’t answer this in my usual mostly timely manner. Yes, we are on the same page on this one. There is something that we are supposed to learn and implement here in all this lockdown. We are not made for lockdown so this is a challenge for us but it is also an opportunity. That is what you always remind us about, the opportunity of things. I think we will get coughed up on the shore when we all see collectively what needs to happen. Right now we are largely floundering and it isn’t pretty. Thanks for your great comments. Pilgrims rock, Felipé.x