The Exit Strategy // The Opportunity

It’s been maddening, this time. Confusing, perplexing. 

It’s been tempting to grip on tighter. 

To distract ourselves by focusing on minor inconveniences. To numb ourselves so we don’t have to really deal with what’s been unfolding or the gigantic opportunity that is sitting under our noses.

To shut our eyes and harden our hearts; to not think about others and just hold out for the return of normal.

But normal is gone. 

And so is that version of you. 

How to exit? 

To minimise and dramatise this period; to rush back in headfirst. That would be the easiest thing.

At best, this time has brushed on the edges of your routine. At worst it’s turned your world, your job, your family and your livelihood upside down; you or someone you know has been sick, or passed away. 

Oh, how easy. To slip back into being busy. How bloody comfortable that would be. I can almost taste it.

But hold on for a sec.

How often do we have a chance, a circuit-breaker like this, that allows us to turn the microscope on our own lives? Once in a generation? Less? 

A bona-fide opening in the clouds to examine whether the way you were living was serving you. You.

What if you decided your old ways of living were unsustainable? That your kids had learn as much about life from being at home, cooking with you, looking after the garden, and having space and time to become bored and explore their creativity (and maybe all of that goes for you too…)

What if you decided your values had shifted a little out of alignment and your priorities were a bit mad; if the bigger lens and the perspective that COVID has provided has encouraged you to reimagine your place in the order of things. That narratives of success and achievement and a culture of more and more and more is actually totally batshit crazy. 

What if instead we had learned the value of silence. 

The meaning of truly, truly being here, now. 

What if we learned that striving and pushing were not the great strategies we thought they were and that those pillars of success sold to us were actually selling us out on our own capacity to expand joyfully into the full expression of ourselves.

As we peer around the corner of normality, consider how much is worth putting back on the schedule. 

That’s your opportunity. A more gracious, humble life. A more expansive human experience. Heart-centred decisions. That’s my exit strategy.