To Be in the Time of Covid-19

Find a Window of Wild: To Be in the Time of Covid-19

Those of us whose work does not involve being on the front lines, that work from home, or are suddenly, temporarily without work and are still blessed with our health, may find ourselves missing comfortable urban distractions.

I see desperate posts on social media, people missing things: concerts, shopping malls, restaurants…distractions. Sometimes I find myself longing for these distractions too–they can be very amusing.

However, the longer I am away from industrial distractions, the more I conclude that I don’t truly miss all those things—well, maybe live music and dancing, but these things are art and true art is a beautiful thing that transcends.

What I think we are missing is the comfortable idea we have of ourselves. When we no longer can reflect on scheduled days to reaffirm who we are, we panic: perhaps I am this void that I feel?

Who am I if I am not the woman I see reflected in my daily routine and my brief interactions with so many other human beings?

Do we really miss the mass, insular, fleeting connections that modern society provides: strangers passing, standing in line, sitting next to one another? Probably not.

We are simply less distracted and we are missing what we always miss: a connection with other living beings.

I live on a mountain top surrounded by ponderosa forest. The forest has taught me that I do not miss the self-insular human beings who speed past on mountain bikes, chewing up the wilderness and leaving areas of destruction where nothing will grow—not one bit.

What I do know is that I do not miss things. I miss lives—humans, beings that I can no longer physically interact with. Sadly, in our distracted, pre-COVID society, I often felt the same nagging loneliness. 

The connections we seek cannot be found in industrialized world distractions.

We don’t miss the distractions of urban life at all—not really. We don’t simply miss other human beings. We miss the enmeshments with other lives.

When I am surrounded by spring life—a symphony of birds, frogs, new flowers, and green trees—I am not lonely at all.

Let the distractions go.

Find a window of wild and just be.
The voices of birds, insects, the scents of trees, flowers, and earth, will fill that lonely void quite nicely.