Finding your Magic
A couple of months ago I was speaking at a board meeting and a woman presenting ahead of me was addressing the topic of social or economic inequality and how it breeds dissent. She said that strife, polarization, and populism happens when there are haves and have nots. When it gets extreme.
I asked her if she was aware of another time on this planet where things were like they are. I was expecting her to say the Dark Ages or something like it and she said without blinking – the 1920s. Wow. And then she said that it usually takes catastrophes to bring people out of it. Something that bonds, unites, and creates a crisis. She was talking about war, things like 9/11. She said she didn’t know what it would be this time around but suspected it would be climate change.
I'm sure she didn’t see COVID-19 - but a pandemic coupled with an economic melt-down just might do it. That’s if we don’t careen off the ledge in tit-for-tat’s with Iran first. When the world goes mad like it did this week we might have the recipe for unity. We might continue to meltdown into more and more tribalism. Let’s hope it doesn’t have to get soooo bad, so much worse for people to wake up and stop arguing across every aisle that exists.
But while the world is careening out of control we get to decide how we want to be. My preference is to go on a news diet. Stay tuned but not engrossed and do my best to continue on about my day, week, month. If we are home-bound or quarantined we are prepared. Now life goes on.
Our team is working virtually as it has for the past 20+ years when we lived on dial-up and AOL. Closer to home here are a few simple things to keep life enjoyable while we slow down and ride this thing out. Here are some simple ways to make magic out of the mundane. You’ll have your list so please send it along.
Make soup – nothing like homemade broth with the holy trinity of veggies – carrots, onion, celery, and some chicken bones and parsley or a bay leaf or two.
Make applesauce.
Curl up on the sofa or stay in bed one afternoon and read a good book.
Take a bath.
Play Scrabble.
Teach yourself how to crochet or knit.
Write a letter.
Take the dog for a walk.
Walk even there’s no dog.
Call or Facetime someone you haven’t spoken to in a while.
Find a new series on Netflix and binge-watch something out of your normal comfort zone.
Put together a jigsaw puzzle.
Search the web for where you will travel next and have something to look forward to.
Play with your kids or grandkids.
Bake cookies.
There’s plenty to do outside of our screens and our offices. Stay put, relax and make sure you’re not adding to the strife that’s going on in our world.
Be nice. That’s the best magic of all.