In a Fascinating Time

These times are unsettling, polarizing, intense, confining, and confounding. What am I to do with all this? I feel I am standing on shifting, unsafe ground. How can I call this a fascinating time?

It’s a New World

We are dealing with a whole new world, whether we realize it yet or not. There is change on so many fronts—dealing with Covid at work and at home, unsettling politics and polarization in so many countries, trampling on cherished norms and values, uncertainty regarding the future, and suffering for many. The world as we knew it is gone.

With this new world, comes both challenge and possibility. There are openings everywhere—for creating new approaches, for relating to others in new ways, for working differently, for getting comfortable with solitude, for releasing old ways of being, for going deeply within, and for tackling the problems this new world produces.

New thinking is required to see the openings before us. In times of great change, we can become unsettled. Things get blurry and it is hard to see what is before us. We must clear our vision and stand fully in the present moment, no matter how terrifying it may be. From the vantage point of the present, we will see the Openings before us.

What’s So Fascinating?

Two ways of defining fascinating are: engrossing and absorbing. Clearly, these times are that. Other definitions are: of great interest or attraction; enchanting; charming. How can we get ourselves to embrace these latter definitions, as we adapt to these times? By taking a big step back and observing the totality of what is going on. We can enlarge our focus to encompass all aspects of the change we are experiencing.

In doing this, we see a bigger picture that includes both the challenge of change and the new vistas that lie before us. Change offers openings, as old ways become obsolete and leave empty spaces. Let’s walk through these openings with ingenuity and excitement. In doing so, we will get closer to seeing these times as fascinating ones.

We have a choice in how we live our lives. In times of change, we can hide and look back or we can embrace the change we are experiencing. When we embrace change, a sense of fascination begins to set in. We see and experience things we have not seen or experienced before. Openings come into focus. We are stimulated and our creativity begins to expand.

This Opening Is Huge

The changes in our world are dramatic and numerous right now. They have our attention and the potential to fascinate us. At first, the openings related to these changes may look like empty, vacant spaces that were created by the absence of what existed before. They are so much more than that. These openings are offering us new adventures and opportunities.

With huge openings come big possibilities. Let’s take a look at the time we are in. Is there any part of society left untouched by the pandemic? Can institutions continue functioning in the same ways they did prior to the pandemic? Are people being transformed by the changes they are experiencing?

Sometimes, huge openings take a while to see. The debris and fallout of change obscure them. We must settle ourselves in the present moment for openings to become clear.

Let’s Embrace The Magic

We each can make a conscious choice, right now, to embrace all that this time offers us. We can give ourselves the space to grieve what was and then we can look forward. We can muster our courage, ingenuity, grace, and power to explore the openings presented by this time and all that they offer us.

Let’s make the most of living in a fascinating time!

I’m beginning to get it. The shifting ground is moving me. Yes, it is unsettling, however, without it I would stay standing on the same ground forever. I can regain my balance now and be fascinated by what is to come.