The current COVID crisis, emergency or whatever you call eighteen months of pain will pass. Though, eighteen months is a long time waiting for things to pass. Aunty must admit that it is doing her head in. I’m a bit of a planner and it is incredibly frustrating for everyone to have their plans ripped apart with very little notice. March 2020 and my partner and I had booked to fly from Melbourne to the Gold Coast, pick up a car and, after four days, drive up to the Sunshine Coast. My mum and dad were flying into the Gold Coast to meet us. The whole trip was cancelled in a heartbeat. Flights, accommodation, vehicles and entry tickets. But we knew this would pass.
I booked to see my grandbabies in Country Victoria – cancelled. I booked to see my parents in New Zealand in early June 2021 – cancelled. Then another crack at flying late June – cancelled. You can see a theme here. I know I am not Robinson Crusoe. So many of our friends and family have made plans only to be required to cancel, rebook, cancel and then book again. And right now, it feels as though our world may never be normal again. But the world will return to normality. This too will pass. We’ve just got to wait it out.
I usually dread dentist visits. A visit to the dentist should be considered a very good thing to do so, one could argue, I should be very excited, anticipating my clean, smooth teeth. But I know that the visit will probably hurt a bit and the inevitable bill for service will hurt more. Yet I am comforted by the knowledge that by the end of the hour, I will have been drilled, polished and invoiced. I will emerge out the other side. But even if I was really excited by the impending visit, if visiting the dentist was the one thing I loved to do best in the whole world of things to do, by the end of the hour, I will emerge out the other side and the visit is over.
Whether the upcoming event or current situation is good or bad, it will pass. We need to accept that and offer no resistance. Time does not stand still for any of us. When we feel nervous or so excited we could burst, by this time next week, it will be all over. When my first booked New Zealand trip was cancelled, my mum said, “Oh well, if you had come on the first, the trip would be all over now. Now we can look forward to you coming all over again”.
I am a Melbourne Football Club supporter. I wouldn’t say I was hugely active as a member. In fact, I’ve never joined up. But, we chose our club back in 1999 on arrival in Melbourne – it seemed to make sense as we lived in Melbourne so we should support Melbourne Club. Once you have chosen your club, you can’t change. Melbourne haven’t won a premiership since 1965 and, as that is the year Aunty was born, I know that, as of me writing today, the Club hasn’t won for almost 56 years. Since 2000, the Club has usually been somewhere near the bottom of the team ladder. Applying the whole, “this too will pass” thing didn’t really seem to apply here and I was okay with that. Yet, for the 2021 season, amazingly and wonderfully, the Club is on top of the ladder. I had to Google the team song because I had completely forgotten the words and tune, (the winning team song is played after the match so I just hadn’t heard it for years). So Melbourne Football Club has proven again – “this too will pass!”
Bad and good things happen. Neither last. When I broke my leg badly, I thought I was the only person in the world with a broken leg on that rainy and stormy day. This was a catastrophic event in my life. Yet, the world did not stop spinning and the ocean waves kept right on coming in and going out. The fact that I wasn’t the only person in the world with a busted leg on that day was confirmed as I was wheeled screaming into the hospital emergency ward. I heard one doctor say to his colleague, “I hate it when it rains. We get so busy!”
How many times do we hear people saying they don’t want to have another birthday. It won’t matter how much they protest, that annual milestone will arrive. And the alternative isn’t pretty. I know that I would much rather accept that I am now another wonderful year older and probably no wiser rather than not breathing at all.
Bad situations can feel like the end of the world. The grief cycle will kick in. When I learned of my trip’s cancellation at very short notice, I rapidly went through all the grief stages. I think I was through all stages within one hour. Shock – “What the?” Denial – “That can’t be right. You’ve got it all wrong.” Anger – Expletive expletive then Sadness. And then I was out the other side looking forward to rebooking and finally being able to see my mum and dad.
As you get so excited by the thought of finally enjoying that holiday that has been cancelled so many times or terrified at the prospect of your first performance, a visit to the dentist, or the first day on the job, know this too will pass. Some experiences last longer and some are short. But everything eventually passes. Accept that you can’t control this and let go.
Mojo Maximiser #53 Know that this too will pass