We got the gift of time
The world as we know it has changed. With more than 1/3 of the globe being in lockdown, none of the existing generations, outside a small minority of WW2 survivors, has ever experienced something that severe at such a global scale. All of a sudden, for very valid reasons, our freedom has been swept underneath our feet.
The last time I stepped foot outside was on Friday, March 6 2020. It’s been a little over three weeks since I interact with people other than my wife. The next day I woke up with a very sore throat, followed by coughs, high temperature, a foggy head, and stomach aches. I’m not sure what it was, I never got tested, but medicine seemed to work. Nevertheless, I self-isolated to cover all bases in case I somehow caught COVID-19.
The lockdown
The symptoms disappeared within 4 days, and I was 100% recovered by day 7. Since then, the coronavirus situation in the UK escalated and within days, the Prime Minister ordered a national lockdown, only allowing people to go out for groceries and other primary needs.
I’m not the only one who’s been “locked” inside for over three weeks already. People all over the world have been confined within the four walls of their homes. Whether we live in a tiny hole, a spacious apartment, a mansion or a house with a garden, we’ve all lost one thing in common. Our freedom.
If there is one thing we’ve all taken for granted in the Western world, is our freedom. We were born and raised to live in a free world.
We were all given the freedom choice to explore life, define and live it the way we wanted. From where we live, to our professional careers, to our family and where to live, we have the freedom to make choices that define us as individuals.
The lack of time
But with freedom come responsibilities. And responsibilities take up much of our adult times, holding us accountable for the choices we make as we grow older, leaving us with limited time to dedicate to things we want to further explore.
Take your job for example. 5 days a week you have to at least be at work for 8 hours a day, and in most cases, spend more than an hour commuting to and from your workplace. By the time the weekend comes, you have no energy to explore new things, and you increasingly find yourself taking care of life’s admin.
And here’s where I think the lockdown can benefit us all. Pausing life’s random chores such as commuting to work, going to the post office, going (leisure) shopping and traveling for 45 mins to get to a restaurant or a meet-up, has provided us with an invaluable gift; the gift of time.
The invaluable gift
The recent lockdown proved that we can perform 90% of our activities online. This has created space in our daily lives to focus on the things we always put on hold, such as spending more quality time with our family, video calling distant relatives and friends more frequently, cook more, read those books we we have on our selves, write our own, learn how to play an instrument, explore online courses, catch up with some sleep, make videos, or even watch that 3.5-hours long movie on Netflix (Yes, I’m talking about The Irishman.).
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to sugarcoat the global lockdown. Recent events have turned our lives upside down, however, life goes on and as someone recently told me “it’s a lockdown, not a shutdown”. We have to continue with our lives and adjust to our new reality.
Nobody likes changes, but with every new change, new opportunities come along and we now have the time to pursue them. So what will you do with your extra time?
Till next time…
