“Imagine With Me” — A New World Post Pandemic

On Sunday, February 5, Tysons Interfaith will host a workshop entitled, “Reconnecting Post Pandemic.”  We invite you to join us on Zoom for this event.  (Details can found here.) 

In the spirit of this event, we share with you these observations from Trish Hall of the Centers for Spiritual Living Metro.

 It dawned on me recently that what I have been experiencing in the aftermath of the pandemic, was described in a story by Washington Irving.  A few years ago, my life seemed to have some order to it.  The pandemic hit.  I felt like the letter-cubes being shaken in a Boggle cup.  I accepted the role of the letters and made sense of my life within the confines of pandemic rules.  Then the rules changed again.  Like Rip Van Winkle, an amiable farmer who wandered into the Catskill Mountains where he came upon a group of dwarfs playing ninepins, I found myself in a different world among many unrecognizable people behaving in ways that were foreign to me.  Rip accepted their offer of a drink of liquor and promptly fell asleep. I watched horrific scenes and appalling statistics on television, listened attentively to learn about medicines and sequestered.  He awakened, 20 years later, as an old man with a long white beard; the dwarfs were nowhere in sight. Rip wandered into town and found everything was different. 

I didn’t grow a long white beard.  My slumber was only 2-3 years, but my disorientation was on par.  Information (and misinformation) was coming from all directions.  Schools and scheduling changed.  Workplaces had been transformed.  We learned, on a daily basis, which people, companies and organizations had survived.  Everyone, in some way, had been impacted. 

For many, re-socialization has been a struggle.  Some adjusted to isolation so well that reconnecting with the world in-person was, and still is, scary.  Navigating the new rules, or lack thereof, caused a sense of instability. Wobbling, tumbling, scrambling for a known that no longer exists, stressed many relationships to the breaking point.

Yet, deep within the disorientation, there is a vital energy calling us to emerge out of the cave of illusion into the light.  We are being called to embrace the divine creativity within us.

Just as the phoenix rose from the ashes, we have the opportunity to discard behaviors and beliefs that do not serve us.  Whether they ever did is irrelevant.  Now freed from our tethers, we can overcome obstacles, achieve goals previously thought to be unattainable and create a world that works.

Now is the time to come together to cause a paradigm shift in the course of history.  We need not be concerned that there may seem to be only a few who understand that this is our time to make a difference.  Margaret Wheatley advised, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

This is a time of new beginnings.  Everything we thought we knew has been impacted in some way – some cataclysmically, some minorly – none have escaped completely.  Not in my lifetime, have I experienced a potentially clean slate on which to design a new world.  Multitudes are still clinging to pieces of the past, terrified of the unknown, grasping onto tendrils of the past, impeding the emergence of a new way of being.  Some have surrendered and given up, heading back into the cave to be re-shackled to the wall.  Others have surrendered in a different way: they have released their attachment to trying to reinstate the past and are enthusiastically awakening to possibility … to calling forth pure creative potential.  These are a new breed of investors – willing to invest heart and soul in creating a world that works.  These are the ones that see the opportunities that abound – opportunities to be the facilitators birthing a world that works.

Imagine with me, a world in which all persons live in alignment with their highest spiritual principle, understanding the interconnectedness of all creation – in which there is an awakening to its spiritual magnificence. There would be no atrocities perpetrated.  Kindness, and respect of each other as divine emanations would be the norm.  Resources are valued, grown, cared for, and shared so that everyone has enough so that terms such as homelessness and food instability would only be words in the dictionary from times gone by. Everyone belongs in our new world.

Imagine a world which draws on spiritual wisdom and the lessons of experience -in which people respect and honor the interconnectedness of all life. This is our time for awakening heart based social conscience in every area of the political, corporate, academic, and social sectors, building sustainable structures to foster the emergence of global consciousness – a global ethic – a world in which the kinship all life prospers. 

Imagine everyone discovering the creative power of thought and using it for the betterment of all people:  a world that works on the individual and global levels. Feel the world becoming peaceful, when, as Jimi Hendrix said, “…the power of love overcomes the love of power …”

I love the imagery of creativity, on the brink of chaos, thriving.  We have experienced more than enough chaos – now is our chance to midwife the birth of a new world – a world of peace, prosperity, compassion and caring across the planet and in each household.  

Imagine with me, people everywhere emphasizing unity with their creator and connection with each other – individually and collectively responding to the call of Spirit to take action.  An awakened “world that works for everyone and for all of creation,” is emerging as each of us does our part.

Listen deeply and respond!  How are you to be?  What is yours to do?  What cause is spirit calling you to set in motion?

This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.