I was in the midst of rearranging my mind, shifting the priorities of my heart while reflecting and maybe even crying over lost opportunities as email after email dropped into my inbox, all announcing the same news: we regret to inform you…. Due to these extraordinary circumstances we’ve had to…
I was busy trying to figure out what this all means for me and for this very new chapter of my life. I realised with each passing day that I would have to process my disappointments quickly and cancel everything else I had planned for the year to figure the most efficient way to mentally shift gears and move back into a life I thought would be behind me. Self-isolation.
Over the past few years I have lived a quarantine-like life; working from home or under curfew. I barely met or socialised with anyone outside of my immediate family or colleagues. As the year began I was looking forward to normal life on the “outside” as it were; where I would be free to socialise in larger groups and more frequently. But with COVID-19 changing every minute of our daily lives globally, it means that not only do I have to suspend everything, the rest of the world has to do the same too. Business is unusual.
I have to go back into that space again, into a house full of strangers where everything is new and unfamiliar, where my freedoms are curtailed for my own safety and in the public’s interest.
I was adjusting to this new life while also setting my intentions, promising to do better this time since I have had many years of practice.
It was at this moment when a friend sent me a picture of us from happier times. When we all lived under similar conditions but still found ways to connect and to remain positive.
“Your spirit is still alive here” she wrote, admonishing me to stay safe.
Those six words gave me the warmest hug at a time when I was beginning to feel not only isolated but lonely. The kind of loneliness that makes you want to go home to love immediately. A message from a kindred spirit, melted the walls that were building up around and inside of me. After reading her text I felt more connected and less alone. I felt renewed and comforted.
Her message to me was a reminder that as with all past disappointments and tragic events in my life and around the world, nothing lasts forever. This too shall pass. We will learn to live again, perhaps a little differently, but we will live.
In essence it confirmed this week’s truism from Paolo Coehlo’s blog that:
True friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.
I have learned that true friendship transcends all boundaries; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. True love and friendship makes life not only bearable, but also worth living. Today more than any other day, I am grateful for the gift of true friendship and the true love of family which has kept me safe and very sane when the experience of pain threatened to blur my perception of reality.
Love and friendship gave me a better perspective. Hold on to yours.
Jedi Ramalapa 