When it gets to be June 21, and it is the longest day of sunshine of the year--and you find that your glass is BOTH half full and half empty--and it gets to be almost the halfway point of the calendar year--what to think?
At the start of the year, many of us were hoping to get a covid vaccine and put an end to the masking, isolating, fear of contracting covid, etc. Well, voila! Six months later and look at us now. My gym is full capacity, no masks and back to "normal." I went to the grocery store for the first time since covid without a mask. I felt naked almost. I said almost!
But let's consider the bigger picture. Let's consider how much has truly changed in us and around us as we contemplate where we were--the first six months of the year and where we are now so that we can intentionally put our best sandal forward.
As for me, I am a little surprised that we are this far down the road when it comes to "back to normal" activities. (We in the US are faster than others.) I thought we would be hanging back from "regular programming" quite a while longer. I am not complaining. I am just noticing my reaction. Which is what I am encouraging you to do. Notice how you are at this point in your journey in this game called LIFE.
Are you at a place to move forward, onward and upward, heave-ho and let's go? If so, go right ahead. Take what you have learned and discovered about yourself and your priorities and put that to good use. Make plans. Go on a trip. Eat out. See friends indoors. Go to the gym again. On the other hand, are you the person who needs some grace space--room to forgive yourself for all that you didn't accomplish with that abundant free time like clean closets and lose weight and get active and journal? We cannot criticize ourselves for what we couldn't control when we were living through a global pandemic. Period. It was survival mode in a cortisol/adrenalin bath.
This brings us to one of my favorite mantras: BEHOLD THE POWER OF NOW. Now is where power lives. Power does not live in the past. That might be depression back there. Power does not live in the future. The future is not promised--it may not come--and that might be anxiety up ahead. Power lives in what you can do in this moment now that you know in this moment that you want more for yourself.
While I realize we are not "post pandemic" yet, we are living in the post-vaccine world of more freedom. It is time to knock it off with the netflix and get reacquainted with yourself and your internal compass, your heart's desire and your wish list. It is time to take charge again. It is now, and especially today on the longest day of the year--there's even more daylight hours to embrace all of you.