Do you have a new normal?
My workplace will be re-opening to the public soon, and we are wrestling through what our ‘new normal’ will look like. We are all walking through a period of history unlike any other in my recollection. Have we learned any lessons from this world-wide event? It's a question worth pondering ...
A quick look around the world wide web will demonstrate the most popular lesson learned is the importance of washing our hands.
My grandmother would have loved that one, along with Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865), the father of infection control. Semmelweis fought an uphill battle to get the medical establishment to accept handwashing could make a difference in the death rates in hospitals, and ended up dying in a lunatic asylum at age 47 for his trouble. Despite the proof his case studies provided, it wasn’t until twenty years after his death, when the work of Pasteur, Koch and Lister became known, that he finally received credit. Hopefully, when we are presented with the evidence, we aren’t such slow learners! I can’t help but wonder how many more illnesses could be stopped if we keep the simple washing of hands at the forefront of our lives. Whether you sing Happy Birthday or recite The Lord’s Prayer as you do it, let’s keep it happening for the benefit of all.
Like most issues that have worldwide impact, the media coverage has reached saturation level – and stayed there! Journalist Leigh Sales said in her recent book, Any Ordinary Day, that “watching or reading a lot of current affairs is probably always going to leave a sense of despair and fear” and the “news is highly selective in what it presents”. In writing for Time and Forbes magazines, Hillary Leung and Alice Walton have advised us to listen to data but to choose our sources wisely, and not overdose on them. Remember - the power to turn it off is in your hands. I can recommend The Squiz, a weekday news email and podcast which gives me all I need to know in a refreshingly unbiased format. It takes up less than ten minutes of my day, and I can pop it on when I'm watering the garden, washing up or having a cuppa. A positive way to serve up my news!
We are social creatures and may well all be in this together, but our personality can have a huge impact on how we cope with social isolation. Introverts who love their space have fared better - English comedian and self-confessed introvert Ricky Gervais said that Covid-19 had been like a holiday! Yet for our extroverted brothers and sisters who crave maximum social contact and human interaction, Covid has been torture. The rise in online contact has helped, but as psychologist Josh Gressel says, Skype, Zoom, and Facetime are not substitutes for the intangible ‘in-person’ contact. Gressel had done some online consulting pre-Covid, but found the increase requires greater sustained mental focus and is quite simply, exhausting! Thom Gardner, teaching online about Finding Rest speaks of ‘Zoomies’, those who, without the need to physically travel to meetings, are now meeting online, rushing from one Zoom meeting to the next, and doubling their commitments. Do we really want to be coming out of this time at a more frantic pace than we began with?
Gressel, writing for Psychology Today, says our core issues become more visible during stress. It's no fun when our oldest and deepest issues surface during such a time! I wasn’t expecting this, thinking that Covid was more than enough to deal with, but when our working hours were cut by half, I had no excuse to not slow down and rest. Yet, I struggled. If I hadn’t been blessed with this extra time, I would have remained the old me, striving to cram ‘restful’ things into my break and wondering why I still felt I was on fast forward. During our time off, God showed me that when my husband is busy on outdoor projects he enjoys, I feel obligated to drop what I’m doing and help. Each time I did that, my own plans took a backseat. In striving to please him, I was blocking my rest. When I shared that with him (who wasn’t expecting the help anyway, the issues were mine), there came such freedom! Now, what I want to do is on par with what he wants to do, and even in that, God has told me to choose one thing from my to-do list and enjoy it, instead of stressing out about not getting to do everything. Thank you Daddy God for applying Romans 8:28 to Covid-19 for me, giving me a renewed approach to life.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 (NIV)
Ask God to show you his application of Romans 8:28 to your experience of Covid. It has certainly helped me!
Covid-19 has demonstrated what it’s like to have little control over a situation, and I’d be going around the twist looking for answers if I didn’t go back to God for perspective. My son was to be married on August 23, but the wedding has been delayed as he and his fiancé wait out travel bans in different countries. Just to be together in the same place has become the more immediate need for them both.
People have had jobs disappear, finances dry up, surgeries delayed and any number of other difficult challenges arise. Just as some degree of post-Covid life was emerging, our southern state of Victoria has once more been thrust into lockdown. Are we next?
How are you faring?
Are you finding your peace in God, knowing that He has the answers for your today and tomorrow? When I admit I don’t have them and hand all to Him to sort, I can rest. I’ve learned to break things into manageable chunks – today, He’s with me, and I’m okay. Sometimes the chunks have been as big as a week or as small as a second, but no matter the size, He doesn’t change and is always there to reassure me.
So, what have I learned to help me go forward?
1. Wash my hands
2. Be wise about my media intake
3. Beware busyness - don’t replace physical busy with online busy
4. Striving steals my rest
5. God is in control, don’t try to take the reins
What have you learned? Have you found any silver linings? I'd love you to share.
This season has been full of wishing, hoping, thinking and praying - here is Dusty Springfield's original 1964 version of just that!
Taking it one day at a time
Tracey 😌
With thanks to
Best, M & Neuhauser, D (2004) - Ignaz Semmelweis and the birth of infection control - QualitySafety.bmj.com
Flynn, Meagan (2020) - The Man Who Discovered that Unwashed Hands Could Kill - and was Ridiculed for it - Washington Post.com March 23.
Gardner, Thom (2020)- Finding Rest: Lessons from the Lord of the Sabbath - Online Course, Ellel Ministries, Sydney
Gressel, Josh (2020) - What Can We Learn Psychologically from the Coronavirus? Psychology Today.com April 5.
Leung, Hillary (2020) - Lessons from the Future: Advice from People Who Have Been Living with the Threat of COVID-19 for Weeks - Time.com March 17.
The YouTube Channel of Kevinlunn01 for Dusty Springfield - Wishing and Hoping
Watson, Alice (2020) - Five Important Lessons the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Taught Us So Far - Forbes.com
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