Autumn light

I am are sitting in the garden of my favourite pub. The beautiful autumn light is shining on the old wooden bench, and the air feels fresh and frisky. The combination of beer and chips makes me happy and gives me an odd feeling of home. 

Anna, my friend, struggles to balance her beer and food at the same time, and finally manages to join me on this sunny bench. We haven’t seen us for a while and there is so much to catch up, but we start to talk again, about our favourite topic; the time when everything changed. We love to talk about it, we have soo much to say! All these feelings, all that massive change! But we are so happy now, where we are. “I wouldn’t want to go back to the time before,” Anna says while taking another sip and trying to ignore the autumn wind. “No, me neither” I add. We cheer again, we are so proud, we know what we went through and we are soo much better off than anytime before. 

My phone rings. It’s my friend from home, her little business, built in the time of chaos out of need and despair has now become a flourishing business. She is the best example of how creativity outplayed adversity! And she is not the only one, many more are now working somewhere new, somewhere they never have thought it would be possible, new businesses have sprung up like mushrooms, money was available through new sources nobody ever has thought of. It was messy, sad, intense and chaotic, but one phoenix after the other, has risen from the ashes and people found astonishing ways to give expression to their creative passion. 

We love to talk about that time of change! A sort of routine has come back, but we know everything has a special new meaning to it. Parties, gatherings, friends, and families, we are cherishing it more, we we value it more. Everything matters, the smallest human connection, the hugs, the silly jokes, the potential of good ideas, time, details and stillness. We know we are social beings, and we saw how compassion prevailed production. And we love it!

Still carried and uplifted by the spirit of this new world, a softer and calmer tone of human connections can be found everywhere. 

A family is just sitting down next to us in the garden, they too, they talk about what they are up to now in this new area. A new sense of confidence and proudness can be found in the way they talk. Everyone experienced themselves how they were able to bounce back, to adapt, to find new creative solutions and that results in a new confidence, in themselves and how they perceive others. 

I tell Anna how it felt the times of loneliness. The time of self-reflection, where I learnt to meet my self and to see what truly matters. It wasn’t that bad at the end, I was forced to stay home, guided to see myself.  It was intense and honest, and I started to remember things about my self. How much I love to have time, to cook, to write and how much I love my friends and family. It was a big lesson towards more authenticity and a crucial step toward the life I am living now! 

Hallelujah, what unexpected outcomes! Ohh no way, I wouldn’t want to go back to an old normal. 

Still, it’s unbelievable, how something so small, something we not even can see with our bare eyes, made a whole world stay home! A whole world, a big global family. It outplayed all sorts of identifications; it ignores religion, nationality, country, financial status, and doesn’t care about political views. This little thing would go after anybody. Despite the cruelty, there is something beautiful in it, we are all just humans when it comes to the virus. 

We can laugh now, and yes we do! But the pain was there, in that eventful spring. Loved ones died leaving families grieving. We have to give it time, to heal and integrate this pain before it becomes the biggest transformative tool to give rise to a new global humanity.

We cheer on that and are enjoying the simple fact to sit in the pub’s garden.