Almost There.

Good people we are officially in the last month of this crazy year. Some have decided that 2020 does not exist at all. Whether we acknowledge it or not we have arrived alive into December 2020. That sounds like a great achievement, right? I choose to see it as such because we all know someone who did not make it to this day. Most of them have fallen victim to the virus or another misfortune. Let’s remember to continue upholding their loved ones in thought and prayers.

Life over the last eight months has felt like being on this winding roller coaster that’s picking up momentum and yet I have no clue where it will end. Life has become so treacherous. We are like the salmon swimming upstream to spawn and hungry bears are waiting to grab us in midflight as we fight against the tide. I saw that scene in National Geographic and it described what I was feeling as I wrote this article.

Most (if not all) of us have been forced to pivot fast and furiously. If you disagree and claim that your life hasn’t changed this year from the previous one, you’re wrong. We are all wearing face masks and getting home early involuntarily at a minimum.

Every time I start getting stressed for not having achieved much I’m reminded of Jack Ma’s quote. He said that this year is for staying alive. If we get to the end of 2020 alive and well then, we will have made a profit. Let’s be kind to ourselves. If you can read this it means you are still here despite your setbacks and situation. The river of 2020 may have thrown you against the rocks and banks of life in the new normal and it may even seem like it’s picking up momentum. Let’s take that as an indication that we are about to be spat out into the sea of calmness, abundance, and significance.

Maybe it’s now towards the end that we need to hang on the most. Just like in a run we get most tired when near the finish line. Our bodies complain and want to pack up but that’s when our minds have to take over and lead our bodies. Remember the common quote – it’s darkest before dawn. Let’s take this season as dawn and trust that daybreak is around the corner.

This has been a prolonged dark period for humanity. Many of us see little or no results from our activities. Don’t be discouraged folks for I believe we’ve been growing inwardly or underground like the bamboo. It grows below the surface for five years (it feels that long from march till now) in preparation for growing continuously all its life when above ground.

I like how Proverbs 24: 10 puts it.  ‘’If you faint in the day of trouble, your strength is too small’’. I dare say that if we are here now then our strength is not too small despite the day (read months) of trouble lingering for long.  Sometimes we see signs of rain and go check if the seed we planted months back is still in the ground. When we uncover it, we disturb it and when it rains it will not grow as well as it would have had we left it alone and trusted that it’s still intact.

I like the Message version of the Good book. It says, “if you fall to pieces in a crisis there wasn’t much to you in the first place”. This crisis has stretched us beyond our wildest imagination. Many have fallen along the way because we all have different capacities to kaza.  Allow me to alter that scripture slightly and add that if you are in pieces you can still put them together and get up again. Trent Shelton confirmed this when he opined,” we are all a little broken. but last time I checked, broken crayons still color the same”.

So, if you are feeling like you are at the end of yourself and have broken into many pieces, you are in good company for we are all broken. It’s just the degree that’s different. We can patch up one another with the glue of kindness, tolerance, and a little more understanding. American essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson said that ‘’bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss’’. I hope that as we get there we are being good learners, picking up lessons along the way. That way we are better equipped to maximize the future that awaits us.