Imagine Stitching A New Normal
/“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.”
~ Sonya Renee Taylor
I heard this powerful quote for the first time a few months ago, and it has stayed with me as I’ve begun to consider what my life, and our interconnected collective lives, might look like in the post-pandemic world.
Of course, we are still very much in the pandemic and we need to remain cautious. Regardless of the recent vaccines being rolled out and distributed, we do not know when this “corona existence” will be over, or what “over'' will even look like. Will it mean living with Covid in a form resembling seasonal flu? Or might it resemble the pandemic of 1918, where the worldwide scourge stretched on for years, killing so many, and then receded into a non-virulent form, at long last? Or will this coronavirus continue to express itself and resolve itself in an entirely original way?
We likely have many more months, and possibly much longer, to navigate through this pandemic and its repercussions. And like many other writers and speakers that I’ve had the pleasure of reading and hearing recently, I agree that it is necessary and worthwhile, to begin to have conversations envisioning a new normal.
I have written a new poem about this visioning and I share it with you below:
Stitching A New Normal
I am still inside my personal winter. In this stillness, my bodymind slows way down,
like a dormant bulb tucked underground, in quiet abeyance, I furl embryonically,
my cocooned curled self nestled beneath the loam of everyday ordinary reality,
where I gestate within a creative womb, during this unprecedented hibernal time.
A glistening vernix caseosa coats my still too soft skin, encasing and caressing me,
awaiting a vernal spring to beckon and bid me sprout tendrils of new possibility.
Imagine for one wholly moment, that Covid-19 is a global invitation for transformation.
Consider the possibility that this sacred planetary pandemic pause,
is a harsh and harrowing, unappealing but profound opportunity for global healing,
a brutal collective prescription for dreaming and re-imagination,
an unexpected portal and pathway to cocreate a new inclusive normal,
a gateway to kindness, where we do not go back to a normal that never was.
We must not nostalgically yearn to return to pre-corona times,
a time which normalized greed, inequity, and exhaustion,
a time when we abided in a sentimental tonal of confusion, delusion, and exclusivity.
A time when racism, misogyny, and fundamentalism artificially divided us
into fractious tribes and terrified camps of distracted depleted consumers.
A time when misguided homilies, on TV and in chat rooms, preached scarcity and lack.
We are better than that. We must not go back to normalizing rage, nor engage in
behaviors that commodify earth, her elemental gifts, our fellow species, or each other.
We must stay attentive in our capacity for empathy and compassion, passionately
vigilant in order to abolish old habits of extraction, hoarding, and hatred. Let us be
accountable, and cultivate loving connections, in order to snuff out disconnection.
Let us embody empathy, creativity, and love throughout our interconnected community.
We have been preparing for this. Now is the moment. We are at the threshold.
We are being given the opportunity and invitation to stitch a new tapestry of inclusivity.
Let us take up our threads of inspiration and scraps of good will,
and find the grace and humility to squeeze through the eyes of our own needles.
May we listen well, and co-create a resilient flexible fabric of courage and vulnerability,
together stitching a new garment of normalcy, honoring all of humanity and nature.
Meris Specterman Walton
And I am really stretching beyond my comfort zone today by including an audio version of me reading this blog and poem. This is a first for me. Here it goes:
