I woke to snow this morning, which reminded me of what a gift the lockdowns seemed at first to my introverted, home-loving self. It was like an extended « snow day », when everything was cancelled and no one was going anywhere, for once. I loved that about it. For the first time I could hear the birds chirping even during the daytime in our urban area, and there was hardly any traffic and no planes overhead.
I remember someone wise, about half a year into the Covid 19 pandemic, saying that we would need a « season of healing » in the wake of it all. It’s been obvious the toll it’s had on some people through their particular work or personal lives, and truly tragic things happening. But I do think that others of us, who have not faced tragedy or massive overwork directly, are also now in need of healing.
Whether it’s been through accompanying other people who have been up against it, or through living with a lot of uncertainty ourselves, and having to make multiple adaptations to how we lived, things have been anything but normal for a very long time. And in many parts of the world all of this has gone hand in hand with some pretty extreme political changes, and a rapidly growing appreciation of the very present threat of climate crisis as well.
Given the extreme suffering of many people in the pandemic and also from natural disasters around the world precipitated by climate crisis, it feels pathetic to admit that we are struggling. But it is a struggle now, I think, and most of us are tired, myself included. Bring on that season of healing, somehow, alongside the ongoing work of changing how we live and the political will to get serious about investing in renewables, removing any money from fossil fuel extraction, and also finding more creative and equitable, kind ways of sharing money and resources to enable everyone, and our planet, to thrive. 🙏💕
la perle 
Liked this Ali: “finding more creative and equitable, kind ways of sharing money and resources to enable everyone, and our planet, to thrive.”; a book I read on degrowth included the idea that we in the first-industrialised countries will have to withdraw from what the author termed our “imperial mode of living”. The more I think about that phrase, the more it encapsulates the problematic nature of how we live right now.
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Absolutely. We have to take a hit. Or change will never come. But I think living more simply and sharing stuff can be fun and has so many benefits, which are mostly hidden because of our privatised lives/ lack of places of deeper connection where how we could do this could be dreamed up together. Although also the scale of change we need to see to impact the climate needs to be industrial from that « imperial mode of living”/being as well. The fact than anyone is still drilling for more oil makes me incredulous! Breathtaking arrogance! What will it take for big oil companies and governments to realise that that equates to killing everything, including their profits??
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