As we pull ourselves out of the wreckage of the pandemic world, our lived experience is full of surprises. A normal world has emerged that does not quite meet the expectations we dreamt about during those crazier days. I have not even heard anyone mention the “new normal” in quite a while.
I think we gave up on that idea.
Familiar Experiences
If nothing else, the life experience is notorious for one thing.
Loss.
In caregiving, everyone involved loses their earlier life experiences. The impaired individuals lose abilities. Caregivers lose their old lifestyles. And despite their best efforts to deny the reality, even the uninvolved family members lose the old familiar relationships with loved ones.
Coming to find that we also ran full speed into this indifference of the universe during COVID, provides some sobering ideas.
While everyone who survived the pandemic, or even a caregiving experience, can see some of the change in ourselves, we still expect to find the world as we left it.
Sorry but we changed AND the world changed too. No refunds.
Vision Change
We see differently now.
In our post pandemic world, we note that nothing is as it was. The interesting question arises when we ask whether we are seeing much more of the workings behind the scenes of this world?
Have these people and influences always been here?
More importantly, in seeing these influences previously hidden, do we feel empowered to respond by contributing to shaping our world, or do we hide from it?
Note that there are consequences for any choice. This adds weight to these decisions.
Growing Into Who We have Become
Getting comfortable with the person that develops from life experiences is quite the adventure, and one that I recommend highly.
I am not quite the person I expected when I was younger, but I like how accepting what life offers, losses and all, brings you to a more comfortable place.
We can be nostalgic and pine for times and people gone but it is in acceptance that makes us whole.
Loss and growth are all around.
All they require is putting our feet down in this world.
“Life seems sometimes like nothing more than a series of losses, from beginning to end. That’s the given. How you respond to those losses, what you make of what’s left, that’s the part you have to make up as you go.”
― Katharine Weber
Dad's Back 