The Magnification Effect of COVID-19
When all of our usual routines and activities fall away due to social distancing and stay-at-home mandates, what is left?
In this time of COVID-19 crisis, what is left becomes magnified times ten. Our values, priorities, feelings, and struggles – all magnified for us to see more clearly.
The effect we are feeling across the globe is mirrored in the sky as Jupiter, the planetary magnifying glass, is making a glorious transit throughout the year of 2020 in Capricorn.
Under this magnification effect…
Ordinary tasks become extraordinary challenges.
Ordinary moments become extraordinary gifts.
Let’s start with the challenges…
Trouble focusing, anyone? Feeling disoriented or having difficulty concentrating? It’s all understandable under these extreme, foreboding, and “unknown” conditions.
On the news, we are hearing reports that the peak of COVID-19 in my geographic area is about two weeks away. A whole new energy of desperation and stockpiling groceries to shelter-in-place for 2-3 weeks has ensued.
How about the challenging task of simply showing up to work when you are an essential worker? Healthcare workers, technicians, grocers, postal workers, and all of the other essential workers have the looming task each day of showing up and serving in their role. I bet this did not feel like such a daily effort before COVID-19 hit.
For those, like myself, who are privileged and able to abide by the stay-at-home mandate in place – what are the ordinary tasks that have become extraordinary challenges? Maybe it’s keeping your family fed for three meals a day and turning over load-after-load of dishes. Wash, rinse, dry, repeat, and then repeat and repeat again until you finally hit the bed only to do it all again tomorrow. Maybe it’s trying to remain employed while managing your kids’ progress with school-at-home. Maybe it’s participating in a work-related conference call while the toddler pulls a container of mashed potatoes from the fridge and smashes them, with great delight and artistry, into your furniture. Ordinary tasks like sleep or bathing may even feel like challenges. The examples go on and on…
On the flip-side of the COVID-19 magnifying effect….
Ordinary moments may suddenly feel like extraordinary gifts.
I have to admit, the first couple of weeks of this crisis felt so heavy. I did not have the energy to do much of anything but get through the day and keep my family afloat amidst chaos. My body felt weighed down and I was TIRED. But now, in week 4 of quarantine, I’m taking a long evening walk every day and letting nature be my medicine. I’m feeling my energy return and I’m able to move with more ease.
These walks by myself are astonishingly nourishing and restorative to my soul, no matter what kind of day it has been. And there have been so many kinds of days – frustrating, infuriating, crazy-making, shocking, numbing, and disorienting. Days of providing comfort for multiple kid meltdowns and days of having some of my own, too.
On one of my recent walks, I witnessed a beautiful ordinary moment that turned into an extraordinary gift.
One of my neighbors was outside mowing her lawn with a push-mower. Her husband came outside wearing his earbuds and began dancing with wild abandon - he clearly had a goal of embarrassing his wife. She shook her head and pushed the mower away as though she was trying to shake away the mental image of his foolishness.
Upon witnessing this scene, I grinned from ear to ear and felt tears well up in my eyes. Actual tears of delight stung in my eyes as I walked by their house and witnessed this ordinary-moment-magic between a couple who has probably been married for many years.
As a parent, I’m also receiving the gift of witnessing ordinary moments that are extraordinary exchanges between my children. These are all moments I would be missing if my kids were in school during these weeks and months, and if they were shuffling about between after-school activities.
My 6-year-old has been painting at least six pictures a day, depicting vibrant rainbows and hearts and flowers…encouraging signs of hope. She is intuitively painting them day after day and gifting them to different family members. She’s also having trouble adjusting to being at home, as a boisterous extravert, and has several emotional outbursts a day. We roll with them, hold her, and love her through it as best we can. After all, we ALL feel this way, we just don’t express it as freely as she’s able to.
Then there’s my 2-year-old tenderly holding the face of his big sister and asking “What’s wrong?” A genuine moment of empathy from a small little human…a ray of hope for the future. Ordinary moment. Extraordinary gift.
What are your ordinary tasks that feel like extraordinary challenges right now under this magnification lens of COVID-19?
What are the ordinary moments that have transformed into extraordinary gifts before your very eyes?
If you’re interested in ways to move what you are feeling through your body, check out upcoming online Qoya offerings.
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