This coronavirus pandemic is a once in a lifetime event.  After five months of sheltering in place and social distancing it’s no wonder we wake up on occasion feeling as if the world has come to the end.  We’re cowering under the covers, the alarm clock still an hour from ringing, our mind bouncing from downbeat to downright depressive thoughts about… everything!

We stagger down to breakfast and a concerned family member asks, “What’s wrong?”

We’re just about to answer, the familiar laments bubbling up, why go on, nobody cares, what’s the purpose…when suddenly we stop short, an embarrassed look replacing the frown, and it is crystal clear, the question of the morning and for all the mornings when we open our eyes to another day, is not ‘what’s wrong,’ but what’s right!

We make an emotional U-turn because we know, even as we grumble over our coffee, the work we are doing is taking hold; we are going in the right direction. Even as COVID-19 continues to dominant the news with its fearsome headlines, we are conscious of all that is good in our lives.

A colleague of mine recently said she had traded her telescope for the microscope.

“I didn’t know you were studying the sciences,” was my reply.

Of course she wasn’t; she was simply describing the shift in her perspective.  Instead of traveling the world to gain a telescopic view of life, like all of us now, she has shifted to a narrower focus.  Now she is examining in microscopic detail what enhances her inner life.

Perhaps the most important of our blessings, is to be aware of them!  Even when we wake up grumpy and pessimistic, we have the inner wisdom and power to choose to have a good day.  By being mindful of the lessons learned, we have the power to move to our highest good.

Being mindful is the key.  It gets us past our tendency to explain our lives as “story,” as a narrative of events.  (That is remembering, not experiencing!)  We miss “what is” when we mistake our circumstance with our intention.  The pandemic does not define our lives!

Shifting from the telescope to the microscopeShifting from the telescope to the microscopeThe next time when it feels as if things simply aren’t going your way, get your microscope and go inward.  The pandemic is a is a bump in the road, not a detour; we are going forward, soon to be able to use our telescope again with new clarity.