It’s the beginning of the third week of Italy’s official lockdown and it now has finally dawned on me. This is real.
Until yesterday I was kind of cool and happy to finally be able to “relax” mentally because of the slowing down/halting of everything around me, but since today I’m starting to feel really confined in my own home.
I am blessed with being able to work from home, but at the same time, not being able to go out by law does bring on a different feel to my daily life.
It’s forcing me to stop even while being busy.
And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one in feeling that when the daily distractions are gone and you’re tired of staring at the screen, the bigger questions of meaning and the purpose of life start to pop up and are demanding new answers.
This comes from someone who is used to asking and facing these big questions, someone who actively seeks out clients to work with who aren’t afraid to look these questions in the eye, either.
And when it’s not a choice anymore to be confined to your home, but you’re forced to stay there instead, those questions tend to get a much louder, more urgent voice.
In truth, I am pretty satisfied with the direction my life is going in. I know I’m on my path of purpose and calling. And yet, there are some things that, because of welcome “busyness” and distractions, I tend to push to “further down the road.” Some things that have a lot to do with living my “bigger” legacy in this world.
I have huge dreams in terms of how I want to impact this world for the better. And I know I’m perfectly capable of making them become a reality. They’re powerful and I know they will truly change things in a significant way in my corner of the world.
And yet, it’s so seemingly comforting to know that I’m still “young,” and that I’ll still have a lot more time to think about acting on that “later.”
But, when things start to fall away and you see the whole world around you (not only in Italy) come to a halt, there is this uncomfortable naked truth to reckon with.
And the naked truth is – and though we all know it in the back of our minds, we’re so good at pushing it away – there’s never a guarantee that there’s a “later.”
It’s the illusion of a busy, distracted world that keeps spinning at a high pace and it makes it so easy for you to forget it.
But this current situation has something scary and yet incredibly sacred to it.
Many people who thought they might have a “later” will not have one, and it seems like it’s also so for some younger ones. And some might have their lives changed through irreversible damage to their organs because of this new, previously unknown, illness.
And so, many pressing questions come up for me and I’d like to invite you to reflect on them, too:
WHEN is actually the right time to start thinking about your legacy?
To start thinking about the question of whether you actually have the desire to leave something that goes beyond your own backyard? And if so, when is the time to act on it?
“Later??”
The coronavirus crisis is forcing us to stop and re-evaluate things in our lives. But, when that crisis is over, will we be able to stop and reflect of our own accord, or to start acting on the answers we found during this period of slow-down?
Or will we go back to being sucked up in the daily distractions and busyness, and be lulled into the somehow comfortable excuse of being too busy to think?
I don’t know. All I know is that it’s incredibly tempting to do just that when this time is over, as it will be for many of us.
But I’m gaining a crystal clear awareness that I will take with me when getting back into “real life” – and that is that I have a choice every day, every moment, to start working on my legacy.
Because there’s really no “later” guaranteed. For any of us.
Let’s start living our beautiful, unique and powerful legacy now, today. And if it seems too big, or too ridiculous, or too hard, let’s at least reflect and give it some space during this period where everything moves slower than we’re used to.
So we don’t have to one day desperately jump into “leaving” a legacy because it might be getting late. Instead we’ll be perfectly fine and at peace because we’ve been living it all along.
