Light Travels - What is the higher purpose of the Pandemic for you personally?

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What is the higher purpose of the Pandemic for you personally?

March 03, 2021 3:55 PM | Carolyn Winter (Administrator)

What is the higher purpose of the Pandemic for you you personally? What silver lining, learning, insight or positive experiences has it brought to you? To share your insights in the comments section, press the 3 dots in the dark gray box beside the title and select "Add Comment".

with love and light

Carolyn

PS - I will publish a roundup of comments in an upcoming newsletter.

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Comments

March 11, 2021 12:29 PM | Dee Jenkins

Personally, the Pandemic has allowed me to find more points for gratitude in my life. I am blessed to live with my wonderful husband, Terry. We are normally home bodies so not going out in groups as much has been fine for us although we miss seeing and hugging our loved ones during this time. Terry and I share similar spiritual beliefs and values. We can and do share our time together with the abilities we do have with love, joy and contentment. We watch different spiritual services on Facebook, Gaia, YouTube and Netflix and we discuss the presentations we view. We are thankful for phones, computers, especially Zoom, so we can periodically connect with our loved ones near and far.

The Highest Purpose of This Whole Experience For Me is I consciously express my love and appreciation for others as well as being so grateful for my own good health and the good health of others. I know my time on Earth is uncertain as to the length. I do my best to cherish and appreciate the beauty and love all around me with gratitude and learning my lessons as gently and joyfully as possible.

Carolyn, I am so grateful for YOU and all you contribute in so many ways over so many years!!! God Bless You!!! Dee Jenkins

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March 11, 2021 3:34 PM | Kelly

This question caused me to ponder. This pandemic has been a huge time of clarifying my purpose. I have been through a lot in the past 10 years
It now feels like I am now strong and more focused in keeping my attention on my purpose for others, to be a positive force with others every day and every opportunity...a positive force of joy, love and leadership.

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- March 11, 2021 3:36 PM | Kelly
  
  Ps...Thanks Carolyn for all the ways you have supported my journey to fulfill my relationship and fulfillment goals!!!
  
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March 12, 2021 11:10 AM | Fiona MacKenzie

Under lockdown restrictions and semi-shielding for almost a year now, I have been challenged by being restricted in meeting others and travelling further than close to home. Apart from a few medical appointments, I have only been as far from home as I can walk. I count myself lucky to live in a beautiful rural spot by the sea.
One thing I have been touched by is how the restrictions faced by my whole community have brought out something in all of us, that we paid less attention to before. Now it seems the little things count for an awful lot more than they used to.

Little things, unimportant chats with neighbours, take on new significance. Stopping in passing to exchange a few words, where before I would have been on my way to get somewhere, and greeted them with a throw away ‘Hi, just rushing off to a meeting, speak later’ - but then I never did. Those little conversations that in times gone by might have seemed mundane, the little everyday things that would usually seem insignificant; the dropped glove that becomes the drama of the day - texting around the street - ‘Is it your’s? No maybe it was next door, I saw him go by a little while ago. I’ll text him’

Taking time for little chats with the postman, or the way we help each other, helping mend broken things, lending things, lending a helping hand with a carefully distanced outdoor task that needs two people. Or the ‘just popping to the shops, can I get you anything?’ that we wouldn’t normally have bothered with.
Standing around chatting about very little - has taken on a new significance - a new meaning and depth - life has become about connecting more, being excited less. Getting to know each other better. Take care of each other. It takes me back to how things used to be in my childhood, before we had TV, mobile phones, internet.

At Christmas time people put outdoor lights up around our village. It seemed there were more than usual, that people were making more effort than usual. As if they were saying ‘we can’t do it indoors this year, so we will do it outdoors - for each other’. Many put them up earlier, some left them up longer. My friend and I, on our habitual weekly walk, which we have been doing for many years, and now doing socially distanced, found ourselves exploring these displays with more interest than usual. Exploring down the little alleyways 'I wonder if there are any along here?’ As week by week we discovered more, we would compare notes on who liked which ones, She liked the bright, I the subdued. A few we both liked, but more often we differed. Then the thing grew and somehow we turned it into a competition, first just to amuse ourselves, and then we got more daring and decided to pick some winners of our unofficial ‘competition’, and surprise them with a prize! Which in the end turned out to be bunches of daffodils (from the shops, while there was still snow on the ground). Our ‘winners’ were delighted, and it gave us an excuse to chat to people we didn’t even know. In any other year we would have been considered mad, but now this small activity for our own entertainment, became something to lift the spirits of others in a heartfelt, touching way. A break from the monotony. A random act of kindness.

In these times of enforced restriction, we are learning to make more out of less, to simply be content. On a global scale, it’s the same. Our collective awareness has been raised. Issues like the ‘Me Too’ movement and ‘Black Lives Matter’ are more to the fore. This pandemic is a great leveller. The virus doesn’t care who it infects. It doesn’t care if we are rich or poor. Giving the vaccine only to the rich won’t solve the problem for any of us.
The Dalai Lama once said that if our economy was based on happiness, instead of money, we would be living in a different world. I think recent events have taken us all a little closer to that place.

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March 20, 2021 9:04 AM | Tricia Carver

Thank you for the opportunity to reflect and share, Carolyn. It's a question I think about often as a leader of college age young women, my own kids and family, and an entire collegiate Athletic department.
Personally, I've rarely been more in the moment. There are so many uncontrollables in life, and during this pandemic, there have been few guarantees of "a better tomorrow". So many opportunities have been taken away from all of us but working with young people especially has been painful. This environment has allowed me to grow into showing up in every moment with confidence and optimism with compassion and still bringing excitement for the opportunities we do have. I have realized that in my work and in my life, I used to do SO MUCH planning for the future-- future events, future practices, future opportunities. Now, even more clearly, all we/I have is the present. It is a gift to learn to let go of the future and to show up each day.

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