The Precarious Adventure Into the Unknown

It’s been a busy few weeks for me. My kids started school on Monday and as you could imagine, we were saddled with a long list of “to dos” and we dutifully worked through them; however, this year felt so different. Of course it felt different. In fact, it’s very, very different!

In the past, there was excitement and optimism for the first day. This year, um, not so much. It’s understandable too because everything is up in the air. Kids in school are taking bets as to how long they have before a shut down due to Covid19 case rise. It’s hard to maintain much enthusiasm when the forecast for a productive and momentous school year looks bleak.

It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.”

Pema Chodron

It’s not just frustrating for schools and universities, it’s frustrating for everyone! Every single business has had its challenges and struggles and a permanent dark cloud overhead. It’s a cloud of “unknowns” that are hanging over every nation’s economy around the world and this affects everyone trying to make a living to support themselves or a family.

 The best and brightest experts across the fields of medicine, finance and the economy are dumbfounded and have no precedent on which they can provide any solid prediction or possibility that isn’t much more than an educated guess. It’s all a circumstance of “wait and see” and this is not comfortable at all!

The truth is, Covid19 is a reminder how truly unpredictable life is. We don’t and can’t control all the variables and outcomes and life doesn’t guarantee anything. Not our health, our jobs, our relationships, our hobbies. Absolutely nothing is guaranteed. When Covid19 stormed around the world in one month, give or take a few weeks, life around the globe was flipped upside down and frozen. Everyone, everywhere was operating on the same level, dealing with the same issues. We were all learning how to live in the unknown. Even billionaires like Richard Branson aren’t spared. Well they say, “the higher the climb, the farther the fall.” C’est la vie.

So, with school on the horizon, my kids and I talked about how life is, has always been, and will always be a world full of unknowns. All we can do is our best in any given situation. Sure, we can have a game plan on how we’ll handle a few scenarios but, in the end, it’s always a “wait and see” condition. For me it’s been an opportunity to discuss with them, in real-time, the importance of choices for our health: mental, physical and emotional, our finances, and our values and beliefs which are the key element in knowing our priorities in order to make good choices and set healthy boundaries for all areas of our life.

Life is, has always been, and will always be, a world full of unknowns.”

For me personally, it’s been a good time to re-assess and re-evaluate what I want to fill my life with. Life was on a fast-moving train then with the pandemic, the tracks were cleared. After having time to feel how different life was, being relieved of excessive obligations I’d become desensitized to, I’m re-engaging life like it’s a fresh canvas. I’m ready to use a new palette of colors in responsibility and recreation to give my life a fresh portrait of vibrancy and dimension, and create a new masterpiece in my collection, one tiny brushstroke at a time.

Keep it Simple,

Just Teri

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