7 lessons we are learning about ourselves

The past 3 months is playing a game of contradictions with us. We are caged, yet set free. Crowded by family, yet utterly alone. Feeling a sense of inevitable doom, yet hopeful. So far away from loved ones, yet feel closer than ever before.

Pendulums of contradictions jolt us out of the ordinary and mundane nature of our worlds up until now. And so we learn. Lessons about ourselves that we perhaps knew about at on the surface, but are only now diving into the depths to fully understand.

Here are 7 we are learning about ourselves, along with many others.

1. We adapt as needed. Many of us plan meticulously. Lives that we think we will live forever, or at-least for the rest of our lives. Without realizing that our life is on rent (to borrow from Dido). To change, mould, shift, adjust, and simply adapt is what humans are pre-destined to do. We have as easily adapted to living indoors working from home, as we will to commute in cramped trains to sit at a desk at work.

2. We need nature. We were born of the earth and we will go back to it. We breath the very elements of it and are incomplete without its nurture and touch. The sun is me. So is it’s light. Without it, i wither into the darkness of night. Confined to concrete and cement, we crave color and cosmic connection.

3. We need routine. Like children, we function better in structure. We need a plan. A plan for the weekend, the summer, our careers, and life itself. We feel naked without our daily rituals and routines to hide behind. At the same time, the futility of it all is comic. We are gifted with a blank slate now. Will we learn to let the two co-exist.

4. We are social animals. We herd. We commune. We gather. We are an animal that will perish without the other. We need both solitude, and society to survive. Sanity is measured with scales of this very fine balance.

5. We can learn anything, anytime. We are learning that we can learn at any age. Meta huh. We now cook, clean, care for, launder, bake, bike, sew, study, up-skill, master, teach, drive and what have you. Frankly my dears, we can do anything that we put our minds to.

6. We need to creatively express. We are all storytellers, some of just don’t know it yet. There is a story, sometimes many, buried deep inside of us. We dance, draw, write, sing, sketch, paint, recite, cook, pray, dream in countless measure. Compelled to create.

7. We don’t need too much at all. This point has been driven home like none other. A few comfy clothes, a roof, some food, and tons of love, snuggles, family & friends. Check. Check. Check. Everything else is fairly fluff.