We crave predictability. As long as we can count on a degree of sameness in our lives, we remain relatively calm. We are all creatures of habit to some extent. Our pets easily settle into our routines as well, often serving as our alarm clock or reminding us when it is time to feed them or walk them. I was making my coffee this morning, as I have done for fifty plus years, when I suddenly wondered, “How many more times will I do this before my life is done?”
These are uncertain times. A pandemic is not the widespread disease that it is known by, but rather a phenomenon of fear that sweeps people up in its glacial grip like a tornado gathering debris along its conoid path. Those who have been accustomed to rising and going to work every day are thrown off balance by the stay-at-home orders. This disruption to their routine causes anxiety on many levels. If you spend too much time listening to dramatized new casts, you can be swept up in the fear, remaining emotionally stuck and incapable of accepting this interruption in your life. That which you are most afraid of will come to pass.
Some are privately grateful for the unexpected opportunity to spend more time with their children and spouse. They are able to look beyond the current inconvenience and to look for ways to turn this predicament into something decidedly new and different. They will re-invent themselves, or possibly their lives. When you know that change is the only certainty and that adaptation is the only means to navigate the uncertainties, you discover underlying peace. Those of us, whose personal lives have undergone numerous changes, may find it easier to cope in this “new normal” that we must all adapt to. We have learned how to live with uncertainty.
We do not know which breath will become our last or which heartbeat will become the final knock on death’s door; however, if we keep on breathing one breath at a time, we can calm the anxious waves as they arise. We become okay with what is and simply ask, “What’s next?” We are okay with that, too.
