From my Perspective: Changing Tides

As I’ve been talking and reconnecting with people these past two weeks, there seems to be a common theme among the conversations. Things are changing.

Well, of course things are changing. It’s the way life works, and everything is always changing. But what I find interesting about this change that’s been coming up in conversation is that we’re bouncing back. We’re coming back to things we knew. We’re choosing differently and many are starting to come together, rather than being separated.

What I’ve heard is this: We were essentially cut off from one another and all the things and people we love for two years (or more), and it’s time to get back to the matter of living.

But what was really interesting to me is that I felt many of the things people have been sharing with me. I heard, “I had no motivation. I was lonely. I missed doing things with friends and family. My give-a-damn was beyond busted. I had no desire to leave my home.”

And then the changing thought process has those same people saying and sharing with me these sentiments: “I recognize how unhealthy being alone and cut off is. Life is for living. I don’t want to waste any more time being afraid. I want to travel. I want to experience life again. I don’t ever want to go back to living in that much fear.”

How strange is it that I had been feeling and thinking those very same things for some time now? When I really think about it, I guess it’s not really that strange.

We’re all coming at this from a different place, causing us to all have a different perspective on how a pandemic, how our economy, how the leadership of our country has handled, or is handling things. We agree, or we disagree. But most of the people I talk to agree that there is a shift in the way they are seeing things.

What it reminded me of is a tide, rolling in and then rolling back out again. Each time the tide rolls out, it’s taking the old with it. When it comes back in, it brings a different perspective to the land it rolls in on. It changes every time. Each “thing” we all have to deal with is just that.

But the gist of this is, people for the most part are finally coming out of a type of sleep and depression and they are wanting things to change again. They want to have friends over for dinner, travel, and so on.

While there will always be something to fear - another disease, natural disasters, the economy and everything in between - people are deciding they don’t want to live that way any longer. They are deciding to flow with a new, changing tide.

And let me just say, the tides, they are a-changing. Maybe this time they are moving in the direction of good, of peace, of light and community. And of love. Love for what we lost, love for what is todays and love for what the future is holding.

The only real question is, how will you roll with the changing tides that are upon us?