Lessons of 2020

2020 has been unprecedented.

It is not that this year brought the first health epidemic for humankind, not for the first time that a global health crisis occurred. Such challenges have tested the expertise of the human brain in the medical research field time and again. However, it was the collective failure of all systematic structures and the so-called world order that proved to be surprising to many who witnessed it. Organisations that transcend national boundaries and are born out of the wedlock of administrative genius and planned strategies failed miserably in the face of a collapsing world order. Governments that manage nations and trans-national organisations to manage those governments, all seemed to be helpless. The timelines of our lives are now permanently divided with the  'Pre-Corona' and the yet-to-come 'Post-Corona' phases.

However, amidst this chaos, the only order which healed and restored itself was God's order; the nature.

The calls of modernism propelled by the ever expanding need and greed of mankind, were gradually pushing our environment down on such a path of deterioration that it was enough for it to engulf all the concepts pertaining to a modern human civilization.

Our arrogance and dependency over the societal institutions that were created by human civilizations and the apparent sense of order that they were meant to instill was broken for good. Global health organisations stood clueless, governments struggled to formulate policies, corporate giants were forced to re-think their policies and the whole collapse of routine life made us anxious and doubtful of the times to come.

However, as we are gradually inching towards a way of life that can possibly contain, if not combat this deadly virus, I could not help but notice the several lessons that I have been blessed to learn during these testing times. Here is a list of the same and I hope this helps you in acknowledging the blessings we have been living with. It is not necessary that everyone relates to all the reasons listed below but even if its just one reason to be happy as well, why to let it go waste?

I hope that reading this brings as much joy and hope to you, as writing it brought to me-

1. I got to spend time with my family.

I have been lucky enough to be blessed with a beautiful family. I have very caring parents and a lovable younger sibling. Since I started working, I failed to realize that I had started to grow distant from my family. My parents are turning old and I could see the changes I never observed before. My mom gets tired easily now and my dad has started to substitute his favorite morning walk with an extra hour of sleep. I did not have the time earlier to make a note of these things or even if I did, I was too busy to do anything about it. I am so happy about the fact that I could help my mom with the routine home chores when she needed me. My mornings became more comfortable with her bringing my cup of coffee and we always started our day with a gossip session. I could make sure that dad gets in at least some exercise during the day to keep his blood sugar levels in control. I always knew that I am blessed with an incredibly smart and kindhearted younger brother but the more time I have spent with him, I have only grew fonder of him and I am really proud of the man that he is becoming. We got the luxury of indulging in our common hobbies. After years, I learned card games and played board games with my family. Looking back, I must say that I will not trade this time for anything in the world.

2. I read. I read a lot.

Reading books has always been one of my most cherished activities. However, with the imposed rush of adult life, this habit eventually faded away too. It started taking me months to finish a book and this was not because I was enjoying the stories in those pages but because I took longer than normal intervals between my readings. This made me lose the paths any writer desires for its readers to go through, thus it made the whole process of reading lifeless for me. This could be the biggest thing that adult life would have robbed me off. I did not want to lose the pleasure of reading and hence, I began again. So now, I worked to take some time off and keep a designated period only for my reading. This led me to read 6 books in 2 months and I am not going to shy away from admitting that I am very proud of myself and this achievement of mine. It just makes me happy that like a lot of people I know, I worked on a hobby of mine and got back my happy little habit. 

3. Got to know my own demons. 

I have always been a chirpy little birdie. Problems are usually just challenges for me and I always take them in a positive stride. I have been so ignorant of some of my problems that almost always I refused to believe that anything can bog me down. It became a habit to keep burying down things that troubled me. It was during these times that I came to acknowledge the fact that I have anxiety because these anxiety attacks became more frequent than ever. This has been certainly the toughest thing to do in the longest time. I sat down and worked on it. I accepted my flaws and identified what triggers these attacks. A hard struggle with a lot of horrible recollections of the past was done, yet again. I traced all my thoughts and identified that one thought spirals into another at a pace far quicker than I imagined. One of these nights, my anxiety was driving me crazy. I broke down and cried. I cannot be more thankful to god that my mom was there for me that night. I hugged her and cried myself to sleep. Human mind is surely a beautiful thing but at times, to deal with your own thoughts can be a piece of work. My biggest lesson has been to put in that work, to give time to your thoughts, to give them an identity and space. This can be really tough but it is definitely worth the effort. The peace and growth it has brought to me in not only understanding myself better but to value other's perspectives as well is priceless.

4. The happiness of helping.

I prayed to God every single day. I am not a religious person but I believe in the supreme power. I don't find it important to give this power a specific image, name or background. Thankful to my god, I prayed every single day for letting me have a life that is luxurious enough that we kept living as a family, every single day, feeling safe at our home and did not have to compromise even with the slightest of our requirements. Pictures around the globe showed people struggling to keep their source of livelihood alive, to reach their homelands, to survive each and every single day. It gave me hope to find myself in a position where I can help, even though as minor as it would be in the bigger picture. A sense of responsibility and obligation towards other families who are just like mine and the ability to help gave me joy. As a family, we made sure to donate 3 meals for each meal that we had, donated money to support an animal lover who was feeding dozens of stray animals everyday during this time. Yes, it made me sad to be reminded of the poverty in which many people are forced to live but at the same time, seeing so many of my friends and family members who were more than eager to help gave me hope. 

5. The opportunity to grow and learn.

I always planned to take some time off but since when have things turned out according to our plans? One day after another, I just signed up for more and more work. I forgot to prioritize things. This led to frustration and not real results. This time off gave me a chance to chalk out my plans yet again. This prompted me to finally sign up for that online course I have been planning to take since months. I did that. It gave me a chance to get back to my blog and make additions, come up with more ideas. I did that too. I took up a challenge to exercise everyday, I did that as well other the occasional off days. I cooked. Cleaned my cupboard. These were little things that never required a lot of time or effort but until now that I did not have many options but to use my time to finally do these things, I kept on procrastinating. I used this opportunity to know my flaws and to forgive myself, to learn, move on, improve and grow.

6. Our collective realization of our responsibility towards nature

It was nothing but a wake up call to mankind. When we were forced to stay inside, nature blossomed outside. Some original and some fabricated videos started doing the rounds on the internet of how beautifully the nature has recovered from the wounds that we inflicted on her. The air we breathed in metropolitan cities had never brought me such peace as they did in the past few days. I spotted a double rainbow. It was almost as if God wanted to convey that even with all the architectural expertise in the world, humans still cannot create half the beauty that God has. This was a collective realization by all in different parts of the globe. People took a conscious step of living a more sustainable life, to cut down on their greed, to share and care. After a really long time, the world felt ready to work like a family for something that we all equally need and should care about.