Sarah Warsi

Today is the first day of Spring in 2021. While the air is still frosty, the promise of longer days and prolonged sunlight always gives a renewed sense of optimism every year. With the current times, any sign of brighter days is welcomed.

I find that the only way to not let the continued chaos around us completely swallow us is to do our very best to not focus and dwell on it. Much easier said than done, of course, but if we want to maintain some semblance of our sanity, we must try harder to concentrate on other aspects of our life that bring us inner peace and comfort.

I recently caught an episode of a show called New Amsterdam – I had heard of the show but never watched it and I quite liked it. They have incorporated the pandemic into their storyline bringing a greater sense of reality to the show. Anyways, one particular scene resonated with me because it hit very close to home. A doctor was struggling to give a press release to the public about the current situation and finally just broke down and said that she simply could not tell people what she thought they would want to hear, but rather they needed to hear the truth.

Here is an excerpt from the dialogue:

“…you can’t expect me to stand here and say that there’s nothing to be afraid of…We can tell people the truth: that we may never get rid of this virus, that we need to find a way to live with it…there’s going to be another virus around the corner, and then other, and we can’t stop living. We can’t barricade ourselves in because that is when you give up things that you can never get back.”

– Dr. Helen Sharpe, TV Drama Series, New Amsterdam

Fear in itself is crippling because it’s your own inner thoughts and perceptions that subsequently control how you act and the choices that you make. No doubt, this entire pandemic has and continues to be very alarming and scary, but for the sake of our inner peace and sanity, we need to break away from the mental jail that has manifested itself for many people since this all started.

Change your mindset, change your life.

Since early 2020, it’s been a rollercoaster ride of emotions from the onset of the outbreak, to the false sense of hope that it was behind us when cases started diminishing later in the year, to the unwelcome presence of a second and now a third wave with the added threat of several new mutations of the virus. A vaccine is certainly a step in the right direction and has brought immense hope, but not without concerns of its long-term efficacy – especially with the new variants. Only time will tell.

And as the character in the show stated, proactively protecting yourself with a vaccine will not miraculously make all of this go away on a larger scale. There will always be the imminent threat of another virus, unfortunately, but you cannot suppress living your life over things beyond your control.

So as we are in the thick of Year 2 of the pandemic, choose not to feel down in the dumps. Accept and embrace life for what it is, right now, and move forward.

Side story:
The pandemic triggered Canadian coffee chain, Tim Hortons, (at least I’m assuming), to make their Roll Up the Rim campaign strictly digital this year. I personally think this is a much better option in general, because now you never have to worry about accidentally throwing out a cup that wasn’t rolled and you never miss a chance at winning!

So as cheesy as an example that may be, my point is, try to look at the silver lining, even when it’s harder to see. 🙂

The only way forward is through.