The Silver Lining Challenge …
… a story of looking in all the wrong places
In the summer of 2019, I wrote an article entitled, The Art of Doing Nothing. It became my first curated story on Medium and one that I enjoy re-reading because it reminds of who I was back in July. I don’t mean to infer that I keep forgetting who I am and need to constantly refer to things I have written in the past, to remind me of who I am right now, though I am not too far off.
It has been 4 weeks now since my wife and I received the stay-at-home order, reorganized our life a bit, stocked up on a few essentials and hunkered down in our cute little cottage on a hill in Los Angeles. It’s been 4 weeks since I have had an inordinate amount of time to reflect on just about everything that goes through my mind, at a pace, that would have been unheard of before the lockdown. Translated, this means I get to slow down the passage of time and pay more attention to each frame of life as it unfolds. Compare it to the one I just experienced and ask myself some challenging questions.
Did I use that time well?
Did I give it its due?
As it passed me by, did I thank it for contributing something vital to my life?
When you are forced to slow down; when you are not rushing hellbent for the future, you do become more acquainted with right now.
Right Now, is not only a moment in time; a place where you and the universe are given an opportunity to catch up. It’s also a different version of you. A slightly older, slightly wiser (more has passed before you) slightly more willing recipient of what the world has to offer you. It’s the place nestled between two moments, where you actually have a freakishly long period of time, to look and think and ponder the meaning of life, or where colors come from, or why there’s an ever-increasing number of orphan socks in your drawer.
The beauty of this, is that you have as much time as you need to do the things that really need to get done. You have the space to view things from a perspective that may have been absent before. If you are like me, you are probably guilty of racing toward the unknown. That place we call, the Future. Where all that we do today, all that we create and earn and sock away, will be able to used fully to create the life we have always wanted.
How the Future got such a stellar reputation, who they hired for their public relations persona is an unknown to me, but I must congratulate them on the rousing success they have achieved. They have convinced an inordinate number of people, from all walks of life, to forego Right Now and wait for the future to provide them with everything they’ll need.
I feel for Right Now. I believe we have done her a great disservice. Right Now, has done nothing wrong; in fact, she has made an unbelievable effort over the centuries to get our attention and flag us down as we race along the highway of life, heading for God knows where, at an alarming speed.
The Silver Lining in the Year of Covid-19 has been my reacquaintance with Right Now. And I am here to say, that she is quite lovely. Statuesque, surprisingly a brunette, and blessed with a smile that will … well, make, you glad you finally met her.
Right Now, has asked me to put in a plug for her. To get some of you out there, to start looking for her. She says, she’s easily available through social media — something about #RightNow, and that she’s looking forward to making new friends.
What I have learned since meeting her, is that some of the things that used to pass me by, are not getting away with it any more. I had been on Medium for some months, but it was only recently that I’ve actually been able to stop and meet people. And not just people, writer-people. People of similar mind and disposition, who view words not as — those little black marks that manage to get all over the place and get in the way of the pictures — but as little bits of wisdom that strangely enough, are free. Who would have thought?
Silver Linings are interesting things. They are found in some pretty strange places. Like meeting an old lost friend at a funeral. Or having to suddenly leave a place you have grown to like a great deal, feeling all the sorrow and then finding in the place where you land, a new home, a new gal, a new family. (A story for another time.)
I am coming to like these silver lining things a lot more than I did before. Thanks, Sherry, for the kick. Turns out I needed it a bit more than I thought.
Let us hear about your silver lining moments. 😊
