This moment is all we have

During this current Pandemic, many if not even most of us had seen how awfully fragile human life truly can be. As heartbreaking the increasing number of infected and deceased are, I personally woke up to reality, how precious individual human life is and how quickly everything may collapse. It has been declared that this invisible enemy, Covid-19, is even: it treats everyone by equal manner it doesn’t matter whether you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or atheist; white, black, yellow or red; rich, poor or between.

Perhaps so; viruses don’t have brain, so they won’t plot against humanity and choose their targets to hurt them just for pleasure. Number of people who had caught disease and even the death toll are low if we remember that there are some seven billion of us. This is serious but not the world war three-serious! This worldwide plague we all just have to face one way or another reminds me of this: do not waste your time!

Don’t postpone anything: now you’re alive and considerably well, but who knows whether that’ll be the case within two hours from now; tomorrow or next week?

Knowledge about the fact that we have wasted our time during the years; missed so many opportunities to make change, could be frustrating and angering. There are things in our lives we are able to change but I believe that more often we would need other people either to encourage; to walk quietly alongside and/or to offer actual help and advice.

Albert Einstein once wrote to his son Eduard who suffered quite severe mental problems that ”It is the same with people as it is with riding a bicycle. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance”.

It’s not necessarily easy job to crab a hold of yourself and pull yourself out of the numbness and jump into the unknown. But life is always a journey towards what is yet unknown.

Nobody knows what future shall offer; we either expect that our dreams or our nightmares somehow are delivered, but none of us really know which or how. I believe that to vast majority the Covid-19 came out of the blue, at least to me it did. I have always loved solitude partly because, as creative artist, company of other people most often, especially during the creative process means just disturbance, nuisance, delay and frustration. But because I have gotten used to solitude for almost all my life, impact of these restrictions linked to C-19 pandemic have so far been minor if existent at all in my personal level.

Naturally I’m slightly annoyed because some of my plans were intervened by this Corona incidence and were thus at least postponed, including ones that concerned participation to certain activities within Rehab Foundation. On the other hand; this just proves correct earlier observation that ‘nobody really knows what future might bring ahead of you`.

It’s kind of funny how some bad, even traumatic experiences might turn out to become source of strength. It is possible to press through them, even to forgive. Hardest issue for me has been to learn to forgive myself; forgiving others has been ‘a piece of cake` compared to that.

Albert Einstein, whom I quoted above, said also about making mistakes that ‘people who never make no mistakes; have never tried anything new!`Like all growth in life is a process, so has been mine. I believe we grow up until we pass away: if we dare to go through all the pain, all unfairness of life, all possible typhoons, tornados and hurricanes of our own emotions. And if we learn during that process to be merciful to ourselves when we had to face our own shortcomings, wrong decisions and mistakes: we shall prevail!

Kirjoittaja

David Yonah