God/the energies of the universe/Bill Gates/The Illuminati’s/A Chinese guy eating a soup or whatever you believe in (I’m not entering into this discussion now) has given us a slap on the face, sending us a big reminder of our fragility, recalling how ephemeral life is. I’m pretty sure the concept of mortality has been brought to our attention way more than ever before.

This disastrous event broke through when we as humanity had gotten to a point of enormous disconnection; outside and inside: we’re destroying the planet we habit, extinguish the creatures that live in it. We’re in constant discontent with ourselves, killing each other: Our own species! There’s no understanding whatsoever. It seems that only a cataclysm like this one was capable of urging us to rethink certain things in life, shake our reality and our heads, or not.

They say there’s no such thing as positive or negative conditions, just it is what it is, there’s only a greater good that includes “the bad” as well, and that is because those experiences are nothing but a chance to learn some lessons, but this is only possible if you’re conscious enough to get the message, otherwise it’ll be just another event in your life that you passed on auto-pilot.

So, COVID-19 in a nutshell: Millions of people lost their jobs, lots of companies went bankrupt, a great number of people lost their loved ones, and no matter who you are or where you live, we ALL got collateral damages from this virus, in different forms and intensity but we all took the hit. In the next lines, I’m going to vent some of my personal experience and what I’ve learned so far:

Expect for the best, prepare for the worst.

My main source of income is practically paralyzed; for a little over a year I switched my career plan and went from a corporate job in a multinational company to become a shareholder in my brother’s company, so moreover, there are personnel involved that rely on us to provide a livelihood to their families. Tough times!

Right now, my personal and business saving accounts are trembling trying to compensate for the lack of income while I’m trying to find new ways to earn some money and keeping afloat the projects we have prospected in the near future.

If there’s a moment I treasure, it’s the habit of saving money, and this is one.

There’s only here, there’s only now.

I had basically planned my whole first semester of the year, don’t want to sound cocky or pretentious but I tend to travel a lot, usually, I don’t spend more than one or two months in one place (it sounds better than it is) Anyways… I had plane tickets and reservations made and everything of course got canceled.

And more than point out a first-world problem what I’m trying to say is that we take for granted the present and idealize maybe too much the future. I’m not saying it’s not ok to make plans, but the takeaway of this is to focus your attention on your here and now, at the end of the day that’s all we got.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

While I missed the opportunity to get together with part of my close family whom I haven’t seen for over a year, other opportunities to connect popped up; since I got stuck at my mom’s, I spent 4 months with her. We connected in a beautiful (sometimes messy) way and also had a chance to be more present with my other loved ones. Taking our precautions of course.

I hardly talk openly about this, but I was dating a charismatic guy for a few months but COVID-19 tore us apart: (off-topic- that could be a great song title) I couldn’t get back to the city where we lived, and eventually, he went back to his country. While this sounds super sad or heartbreaking it wasn’t, we’re still good friends and who knows what happens in the future, I really would love to hang out again someday.

With that being said and after the abrupt change of plans due to the quarantine, life happened in a way that I could get to know better a beautiful soul. It was completely unexpected, I just let myself flow with it. I have connected on so many levels that I found myself seeing life from a different perspective, a new light. Understanding that love can come in different colors.

Good things will happen if you keep your mind and heart open.

I’m not going to lie, at the beginning wasn’t pretty at all, there have been ups and downs, like always, but this time the falls dragged me deeper. But once I surrendered to the new reality and stopped fighting my thoughts and feelings everything became lighter.

Instead of wandering in my misery around the house, I spent my time drawing, writing, reading, cooking, gardening, photographing, practicing yoga, doing some house renovations, and even started a small business.

And again, I’m not bragging, it’s not a summer camp. It’s ok to not be ok and all of that, I perfectly understand it’s different for each one of us and of course there will be moments of desperation and uncertainty. All I’m saying is once you actively take part in your life a lot of options will unfold before you.

Gratitude is the best attitude.

Even though it hasn’t been easy, it would be insensitive of me if I don’t recognize how privileged I am to be in a position where I could stop working and there’s still a roof over my head and food in my fridge, lucky enough, me and my loved ones are in good health, and I hope it stays the same way. I’m grateful for what I have and have not.

There’s no doubt we’re living difficult and unusual times, I can only imagine how terrible it has been for people who live from hand to mouth, who have lost someone, or are in hospitals struggling to survive. My thoughts are with them.

Response-ability.

The truth is our outer life may not be 100% in our control and this event is the perfect example, but on the bright side, our inner life always will.

We can transform the way we experience these situations and we can do so by accepting our reality and take some actions. I’ve summarized some that have helped me to move on in times like this:

•       Re-define new ways, embrace change: adapt or die.
•       Re-think what I thought I thought: keep upgrading my mindset, let go of whatever does not add value in my life, stay open to new ideas, and don’t be afraid to accept I’m wrong and change my mind.
•       Re-set my priorities: the important must be the most important. It’s easy to lose track and confuse what’s the real core of life.
•       Re-connect: do small changes in my day-to-day to be in perfect alignment, absolute harmony, and complete sync with existence, it’s time to go back to basics.

We’re in this together!

If there’s one thing life has taught us is that nothing is permanent, it’s time more than ever to be united, to show our strength, to take care of the earth, to be kind to ourselves, to show love and empathy among us.

This is the turnaround in human consciousness that needs to take place. This is not transcendence this is a homecoming.