Simplifying
Life
“Be
as simple as you can be. You will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and
happy your life can become.”
Paramahansa
Yogananda
Simplifying
life has perhaps been the gift of this pandemic. Since we’ve been confined to
home for three months, we’ve had time to experience the depths of our
complicity with capitalism and to see just how little we truly need. In fact,
many people have spent a lot of time cleaning out and giving away “stuff” that
has been clogging up closets and basements and collecting dust on shelves for
eternity.
We haven’t been able to
go to restaurants, so we’ve rediscovered cooking and growing at least some of our
own food. We’ve spent more time with our children than we have since they
started kindergarten. We’ve played games, both computer and old school board
games. We’ve put together jigsaw puzzles. We’ve read books, and learned the
limits, if there are any, of Netflix and Hulu. We’ve video-chatted and worked, albeit
imperfectly, on Facebook Messenger and Zoom, and we’ve returned to socializing
six feet apart outside in our yards and on our porches like people did a hundred
years ago. And, as amazing as it sounds, we’ve truly enjoyed it. There is
nothing shameful about living a simple life.
I hope
there is not a second wave of the virus—although it’s already happening here in
Alabama—but if there is, I’m confident that we will learn even more about
ourselves and how complicated our lives had become. This is what Yogananda said about that: "The greatest sin is ignorance--not to know what life is all about. And the greatest virtue is wisdom--to know the meaning and purpose of life, and it's Creator." The speed at which life moved
just four months ago was destructive to our minds and our bodies. Coming to a
hard stop was the only way to get through to us exactly how unsustainable and
unhealthy that lifestyle was.
We’ve had enormous loss
of life, and we will have more. We have mourned the loss of loved ones to the virus
and to violence, and we have watched as the inequities uncovered by the dying
and the killing piled up and ran over into civil unrest and disobedience. We
have lived through more change in the last three months, than in the last decade
and we all have something akin to PTSD from it.
Somewhere, the Gods decided this could not
wait. Change had to happen, and it couldn’t be slow in coming. I wonder whether
you, too, are contemplating all that has changed, all that has been lost, and all
that has been gained, and what it means going forward. I hope so. I know I
have.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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