Essentially our new normal is a crisis?

I still have a Covid hangover. I think most of us do. As I spend time reflecting on the past few years I’m trying to strip away the layers of the struggles it brought and see what I can learn from them. If Covid was an onion then all the layers that wrap around its core have something to teach us, right?

Circa April 2020 I remember my mom asking the question, “What have we learned from Covid?” I remember looking at her and saying, “What do you mean? The lesson is just starting.” I think the question was her way of hoping that particular season would be short lived. It wasn’t. Instead it was quickly turning into our “new normal”.

Fast forward to April 2023 and Covid doesn’t seem to be quite as scary as it was. Have we not re-emerged from our homes? Have we not taken off our masks? Have we not re-engaged in shaking hands, giving hugs, and going out to eat? We were pushed to believe our “new normal” was social distancing, masks securely in place, toilet paper on every shopping list, meanwhile bathing ourselves in hand sanitizer if we actually emerged from our houses.

That, my friends, was not normal nor a new normal. It was a season. Would we have handled things differently if we used different words? Would we have been kinder to one another if we new it was a season? How would it have affected our mental health if we reminded each other seasons pass? Sure we didn’t know how long the season would last nor how rough it would get but it was still just a season. News flash… we have more seasons in front of us.

What we tell our subconscious has a resonating power that can shake our foundation. Let me continue.

We quickly put people in one of two boxes - essential or non-essential. What?! Are you kidding me? At the time I did it too, especially to myself. As my business was imploding, my husband’s was taking off. He owned a remodeling company therefore he was “essential”.

I began spending massive amounts of time contemplating why I chose a career that was non-essential. Would I have chosen something different if I knew Covid was coming? All those movie stars and office workers and professional athletes were also non-essential. We were non-essential to the functioning of our world. As I watched (on social media) ballet dancers trying to stay in shape using their kitchen counters as ballet barres, I remember thinking about where they fell on the non-essential scale: super non-essential or just kind of non-essential. I was subconsciously creating a scale of importance in my head and figuring out where I fit on that scale.

This mind game impacted my self-esteem which directly impacted my mental health. When people would ask what I was up to I would tell them I was running the office for my husband’s company because we got labeled as essential. Remember we are a remodeling company, which beg’s me to ask: is a home remodel essential? It is “construction” so yes it is. Therefore because I’m running the office I am essential. Again…what?! Yet, attaching myself to someone who had the label of “essential” somehow helped me feel less lame.

I wasn’t feeding myself these lies because I wanted to… it was soaking in because everywhere I turned these were the words that our society was using. We fed ourselves our own poison.

As I dissect that layer of the onion I see the power in words and the harm we caused ourselves.

We are all essential. You are essential. I am essential. We each have a combination of unique gifts and talents - perfectly designed by God. God doesn’t make mistakes. He made some of us to be doctors while others are ballet dancers. We are all made in His image - both healer and artist. How dare we start putting labels on one another? It's like labeling our Creator. Not possible.

Deep down what did this do to the subconscious of our world? Was this just another way of Satin knocking at the door of our minds? I know I am not alone when it came to hearing and digesting those lies. I think some people are still wrestling with it.

Finally, as I type this these thoughts I can hear the TV in the other room. Face The Nation is on and every other sentence contains the word “crisis”. Everything cannot be a crisis… if everything is a crisis then that is normal. Not a new normal. Just normal.

Is it a hangover or are we numb? As I study this Covid onion a couple of my take aways:

Words matter so choose them wisely (taste your words before you spit them out).

Life functions in seasons: some are beautiful and others are rough, but they are still seasons. This too shall pass.

Everything IS NOT a crisis.

You are essential. God made you for this time and this time for you. The world needs you and your gifts.