Welcome to another journal moment with me. How are things these days? Are you adjusting to the new normal and how is that coming about?
I remember vividly the morning when Ghana confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus. It was around 6:00 AM, I was running a little bit late that morning. I came out of the shower to see my phone ringing. It was my dear colleague, Offeibea. I wasn’t sure what she was going to say as weird stuff come up every now and then. But I also had a little hint that it might be because of coronavirus, since I had read on social media that Ghana had confirmed a case the night before, But I just thought it might be a hoax- I had wished.
She told me that we are not to go to work that day for whatever reason because of coronavirus and she was calling early enough to make sure I didn’t set off before I hear the news. I told her I hadn’t set off thankfully and we had a little chit chat and ended the call.
This was almost 10 weeks ago. Can you believe that? 10 weeks? It doesn’t feel like it. I cannot wrap my head around where the time has gone to. For me, it feels like three weeks. No kidding. It sincerely does. 10 weeks? — Two months two weeks? How is that even possible? We have been dealing with this stuff for that long? Whoa??
Okay it is what it is. It has been 10 weeks since coronavirus was diagnosed in Ghana. What have you been up to? I know that many of my friends are not going to school — staying at home, taking classes online and doing assignments, others are working from home and some are going to the office, as many businesses have resumed after the lockdown.
How has your life changed? Or is business as usual? Maybe it is, maybe it is not.
Take a minute and think about this next question I am about to ask. What are you complaining about these days?
For some of us, if we were traveling in traffic jams, we are no longer going to the office or school. So, we cannot complain about traffic. Neither can we complain about our bad lecturers and bosses etc. LOL. But we still complain, don’t we? This is genius. We always find new things to complain about. I can bet that we are complaining a lot more than we did before.
By now you can see we’re dealing with time — wasting time. How time flies. This last 10 weeks, we have had tremendous opportunities to make so much change — to make our lives better. Some of us have been so busy complaining that we don’t have enough time for ourselves and the people around us. And Boom!!! Suddenly, we have all this time and we are still complaining.
I am not here to tell you what to do. But I ask you, you have some free time (a little or more), what are you going to do? Time will still fly. There is no other way. What are you going to do?
For the people who are lazy, this is an amazing time for them to make to a great contribution by doing nothing. (I am quoting Sadhguru- He is my muse this week). Check out his YouTube video
It is in times like this that the kind of people we are show forth. One thing I know is that the virus is helping the planet. The amount of pollution in our environment — at our beaches have reduced. That is good for us.
For those who are not lazy and want to do something useful, we can also do something for ourselves in this time. This misfortune should make us more aware. We have a responsibility to take care of ourselves -our health in this moment, should be our first task. The second, should be to the people around us- to keep ourselves safe for them.
This is the time to pay attention to many things we have not paid attention to. I know at the start of this crisis, there was a lot of talk about learning new skills, improving ourselves etc. How are we with that? I think it is still relevant that we pay attention to the areas of our lives that need improvement as little as could be. Be it a skill, a overcoming a bad habit, our spirituality or any aspects that requires our attention. We should not just be caught in the moving time. Stuck! Waiting for the pandemic to go away before we act. No! We should come out of this time even better than before.
This is an incredible time. It’s time to face our lives. We can’t blame those things that we used to blame anymore. Your boss is not there, neither is your lecturer nor the traffic, But, we are still complaining. Even if these things were present we would still complain. So, we know that the issue is still us.
You are alive. Life is still full of all possibilities. What are you going to do with it?
For every time — there is, there are many things to complain about and there are many wonderful opportunities awaiting us.
It is my wish that we live life for its opportunities.
To end I will say for all those wonderful things we want to do for ourselves and others, this is the time. Dream and Thrive.