CoronaVirus & The Gift
A Gift from CoronaVirus - Gift of Time
Stop, rest and enjoy the gift of time.
We have been handed a gift from the coronavirus.
That gift is time.
Time we do not usually have.
This Christmas went I gave someone I love a gift. They told me later in a text they didn’t like it. I felt upset. Kids can have an unthinking side to them like that. It’s fine. I changed it. All was fine.
Now and then we are handed a gift we feel we don’t want because it interferes with our daily life.
But sometimes a gift isn’t about us. It is also about respecting the giver. By accepting gifts we don’t want we are showing the giver how much we appreciate them. It also shows that they think about us enough to hand this gift to us.
We have been given a gift from coronavirus and that gift sounded very much like, “You CANNOT leave your home for at least a month. If you do and we catch you we will find you and punish you.”
The gift we have been given from coronavirus can look like one of two things.
The first, it can look like is a huge restriction and intrusion on our routine and busy life. No one likes or wants that. If we resist the gift the resistance within us creates unease, unhappiness that can make us unwell, sick and miserable.
The second way we can look at the gift is that we have just been told we can take a month or so paid leave. It might have a few restrictions but these are for your better good and everyone's health. This is a gift. This is something that could enhance our life for the better.
For example; I am sitting in my room writing to you. The sound of the birds is always so loud. I can see an endless line of squirrels running back and forth along the top of the red brick wall chasing, playing and trying to take food from each other. Just on the large Oak tree in the corner, there are two fat but friendly pigeons that sit and peck each other all day long. Then, of course, we have Mr Robin. This guy actually taps on my glass window for me to open and feed him. Once I open the window he comes in. It isn’t uncommon for him to sit on my keyboard and stare at me until I feed him. At some point I stop and head for a coffee. That has now stopped.
This is a daily ritual for me but what about you?
If you are like most people that have to rush out of your home early, jump in a car, drop off kids, race to your place of work, wait for the workday to end, go grab the kids, drive back home and then sit and watch TV until your eyes close this enforced period is your gift.
Right coronavirus has given you have a unique opportunity in human history.
Let me explain.
We are born into a very busy society. Busier and more distracted than ever. The reality is life is a short period of time. Regardless of what we do with our life, build empires, have families, buy and consume things the reality of life is life passes very fast.
A friend said the other day “It feels surreal that I am celebrating my 65 birthday today” For me, it is less than real that my father is now 84-years of age.
Either way, time is short and time passes faster than we can imagine when we are younger and busier. The other problem is that not only does time pass fast it can be almost like eating a meal without tasting the food. We just open our mouth, swallow and carry on what we were doing.
Life is like that.
So from today, you have a gift of time handed to you from coronavirus. That gift (if) it is a month is a gift of 30-days. Let's say it is 30-days. What can you do in that time?
I am personally creating a series of coronavirus driven challenges.
Restructuring parts of my home life to protect my family and self from future lockdowns and enforcements
Restructuring parts of my businesses accordingly
Creating a plan of action to get things done before things go back to normal
My blog has been slow as I have been writing books so I am going to blog daily.
I need to complete at least two books I have started and never really gotten back to.
This is a good time for me to review my health and fitness.
This is a good time to sit and review our daily habits and performance.
This is also a good time to do nothing at all and I mean absolutely nothing.
Did you realise?
30-days is 720 hours
240 are for sleeping
60 to eat and drink
30 to relax and other things
That means you have been gifted from this damned coronavirus a huge 390 hours to make a change to your life.
So the real question is how will you accept this gift?
Will you resent and fight it or will you be grateful to the giver and use that time to make a change in your life?
Peace to you, your guide and mentor,
Writer and modern philosopher Alan Forrest Smith.
