For a change…
This essay was mistakenly attributed to Bill Gates a number of weeks ago, however a search on the internet revealed that he was not the author. But it is still an inspiring read in these unsettling times, and we have taken the liberty of summarizing it for our readers.
The question asked is “What is the Corona/Covid-19 Virus Really Teaching Us?”. Many people believe that there is a spiritual purpose behind everything that happens, whether that is what we perceive as being good or being bad.
For one thing, the virus is is reminding us that we are all equal, regardless of our culture, religion, occupation, financial situation or how famous we are. This disease treats us all equally, perhaps we should do the same.
We are reminded that we are all connected, and something that affects one person has an effect on another. It is reminding us that the false borders that we have put up have little value as this virus does not need a passport. It is reminding us, by oppressing us for a short time, of those in this world whose whole life is spent in oppression.
It makes us conscious of how precious our health is and how we have moved to neglect it through eating nutrient-poor manufactured food and drinking water that is contaminated with chemicals.
We are being made aware of how short life is, and what is most important for us to do, which is to help each other, especially those who are old or sick. Our purpose is not to buy toilet paper rolls by the crate.
We can see how materialistic our society has become and how, in times of difficulty, we return to thinking about essentials (food, water, medicine) as opposed to the luxuries that we sometimes unnecessarily give value to.
The virus is reminding us of how important our family and home life is and how much we have neglected this. It is forcing us back into our homes so we can hopefully strengthen our family unit.
We realize that our true work is not our job, that is what we do, not what we were created to do. Our true work is to look can bring our world to a standstill.
The power of free will is in our hands. We have many choices. We can choose to cooperate and help each other, to share, to give, to help and to support each other or we can choose to be selfish, to hoard, to look after only our self. Indeed, it is difficulties that bring out our true colours.
We can be patient, or we can panic. We can either understand that this type of situation has happened many times before in history and will pass, or we can panic and see it as the end of the world and, consequently, cause ourselves more harm than good. This can either be an end or a new beginning. This can be a time of reflection and understanding, where we learn from our mistakes, or it can be the start of a cycle which will continue until we finally learn the lesson we are meant to.
Shouldn’t it remind us that this Earth is sick? That we need to look at the rate of deforestation just as urgently as we look at the speed at which toilet rolls are disappearing off store shelves?
Life is cyclical, and this is just a phase in this great cycle.
