I see article after article, post after post, trying to inspire people to make the most of this time. I myself did some writing to this effect when the virus and the lockdowns first descended on us. Now that we’ve been in the trenches of this for close to a month, my perspective is shifting. If you have not written the next great novel during this time, you are not doing quarantine wrong. In fact, I think we will look back and see that it was not what we did in this time that changed the course of history, but that we didn’t “do.” Perhaps, for the first time in many of our lives, we took a rest, and this may be a good thing. If we pull ourselves from our to do list for a second and observe what nature seems to be asking of us, I would say it’s to get out of the way for a minute. It’s to go inside, not just inside our homes, but inside ourselves. It’s to finally pause long enough to ask ourselves, “what do I want my life to be like when this is over? What do I want my world to be like?”
Being vs doing
We tend to identify as what we do, so letting go of doing is very, very hard for most of us. If you grew up in a Western culture, you learned from a very young age that your value comes from what you do, your actions. We learn to focus our attention and seek happiness at the other side of achievements and acquisitions, and we shape our sense of self around those achievements. If you ask…
