metamorphosis and the newest normal ...

As a journalist who has spent much of my career in Asia, especially China and South Korea, "the new normal" is a trope that gets tossed around with abandon, particularly in reference to political decisions and their effects on the general population.

The world is entering a new normal currently and while there is much to loathe about the reasons and the responses of some, I also find parts of this new normal that warm my heart and restore my faith in humankind.

Enforced isolation and a reliance on technology to work, play, study and socialise has made many of us crave human interaction and, from my balcony perch two floors up and my daily walk at appropriate social distances, I've been observing this play out in my neighbourhood. Strangers are greeting each other (from a distance) and sharing a joke and a laugh, neighbours are chatting across fences and inquiring after each other's health, neighbours are dropping off supplies and food to the more vulnerable in their communities.

My evening walk takes me through a dog park and down to the beach, and I no longer see smartphone junkies focused totally on their devices. Instead, families are enjoying quality time together,dogs are getting more walks and ball throwing than they've ever had (there are going to be some very confused doggoes on the other side of this when their people go back to work) and people are enjoying conversations with each other. Nature is being appreciated, whether rain or shine, and people are living in the present in a way many had forgotten. 

In the lucky homes, board games are being played, jigsaws and puzzles solved, lego masterpieces constructed, and cooking and eating together has become something to look forward to. NB: Not all homes are lucky and being forcibly confined with significant others entails danger for some - try to check on those vulnerable members of your community also.

Here in Australia, the prime minister keeps speaking of hibernation - of the economy taking time out to slumber before, one assumes, rousing itself without any major alterations.

My hope is that we will not experience a mere waking from hibernation but instead, a metamorphosis. That this tragic and painful process the world is experiencing will be a chrysalis phase for many of us from which we can emerge kinder, more compassionate, more empathetic and less selfish. That we will continue to live in the moment, to care for others, to embrace our communities, in a local and global sense.

Because I, for one, found the normal we lived in prior to this to be awfully abnormal in its obsession with profits over people, commodities over connection. I wish you a happy and safe metamorphosis.