(Photo courtesy: Jean Marc Arkelian)
We live by our habits. When those habits which have become integral part of our life are disintegrated then we feel ourselves lost and confused. This must have been our experience during these 15 days of lock down.
When we live our life fully and beautifully there is a great sense of satisfaction and joy. We feel life is worth living. When we were put under voluntary house arrest on the 15th of March 2020, in order to keep ourselves sane, safe and heathy, we must have gone through this fear of contamination of Corona virus. As we notice steady increase of virus infection figures at the end of this month of March we feel satisfied and happy and courageous, because life is still tickling.
Perhaps, I could ask these following questions?
1. How am I living Covid-19 break?
2. What is that keeps me going in my everyday boredom of sitting in my apartment or house?
3. How can I make my life interesting and beautiful during these days of continuous lockdown?
Perhaps, I could ask these following questions?
1. How am I living Covid-19 break?
2. What is that keeps me going in my everyday boredom of sitting in my apartment or house?
3. How can I make my life interesting and beautiful during these days of continuous lockdown?
I have a few tips that have been helping me to keep myself occupied and feel useful and grateful.
1. Keeping God center of my life: When I think about this dreaded Corona virus, you have no other option than falling at your knees and say "Lord! Let Your Will be Done". When frustration and distress engulfs us only the source of strength and courage is God. Before our human finiteness only Divine infinite goodness could fill us with unbridled hope. We could do this by reading the Bible (if you find it difficult to read, take the audio Bible reading which is available here, listen to it and you read along). Spiritual reading would be another idea. Pick up a book and simply read it and put a target as how many pages you would love to read per day.
2. Look for fresh areas of life: Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger (1926-2007), the former Archbishop of Paris, France a Jewish convert to Catholicism seems to have said in times of crises and hopelessness focus your energy on fresh areas. If you have been too much involved in your work and trying to earn as much as possible without much rest and time for your family or partner, now you can think about your relationships with others. You could spend your time in putting an order in your room, house, lot more time in cleaning your house, apartment, compound or surroundings; Spending time with the family members not simply sitting around with mobiles in your hand or TV running infront of you for 16 hours of the day, but a quality time with your own people. Meanwhile, this is the time to forgive those people who have hurt us and if we have hurt others then pray for their well being. Let freshness enter your caged life at least during this time of uncertainty.
3. Think and do something around your vicinity: Until now I must have been thinking about my work, my family, my kids, my compound, my home. But now it's a time to think about others, my neighbours, those whom we know who are far away, who must be in need of some comfort and words of consolation. Perhaps your phone call might help a lot in rekindling joy of life -joie de vivre. If you have not spoken with your neighbour for a long time, it's time to call them or talk to them keeping in mind the distance. We can spread the fragrance of love and harmony in place of Corona and apprehension.
4. Try to learn something new: We are caught up in a strange world where nothing is sure including our life tomorrow with this Corona virus. However, our life is a long journey of learning and unlearning, being and becoming! As my professor of Latin in Gregorian University, Rome would put it bluntly, "Life is short, Latin is long, start today!" There is nothing which is late to start learning. Everything has a beginning. And a thousand miles journey begins with a first step. So why not learn something new or something that you had started sometime ago and then stopped due to time constrains? Now is the time to unpack your talents and unused energies. For example, learning a musical instrument, doing the painting, working in the garden or doing something with the flower pots that you might be having in your house which require attention. Try to develop taste for something which helped the humanity to develop a great culture of music. Listening to classical music is much more soothing for your brain cells than your binge music. Here are the applications that you can hear for free online classical music: KDFC, BR Klassik, etc.
5. Remaining positive: Until now, my concentration must have been more of "Having" than "Being". If I am harbouring enormous negative energy then now is the time to be positive. Let all the negative thoughts about people, relationships, things, affairs of the world, may go away from us. Let only the positive energy be our guide and come to us. Especially during this time when we are flooded with so many negative WhatsApp messages and how the situation of Covid -19 lockdown is affecting us and others so badly, being vigilant is essential to skip from this whirlwind of negativity. Let us be positive first and foremost about myself and think that God will show a new way to live our life in this tragic moment of our times. Here I am not alone but everybody on the face of the earth is threatened and intimidated. Until now I must have concentrated on "having more" but now on I'll try to concentrate on "Being More." Moreover, "Being More" will certainly will help me once this threat of Corona virus is gone and back to our normal life.
To skip from negativity, we could do something special in the morning when we spend a few minutes in prayer:
1. At the end of the prayer, I make a little commitment or resolution for the day and pray for the grace to fulfil it. I would not like to be negative towards others, or will not read anything that has to do with negativity. I'll try to avoid hearing negativity from others and even if I hear I will see to that I behave as if I have not heard it all. I do this commitment for few days until it becomes a habit of my life.
2. I take a commitment during my prayer on another day. I would be appreciative of someone in my family, neighbour or anythings else. I appreciate with words, (adjectives), actions and thoughts. I pray for such people. Even if someone is negative about me still I'll not utter a word against that person.
The above exercises could be done in order to help oneself in becoming «Being More» area of life, thus we can root out anger, anxiety, laziness, jealousy, etc. Believe that everything comes by practice and habit. Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) of the fame “Brothers of Karamazov” wrote so emphatically “only beauty can save the world”, «Красота спасет мир». In the wretchedness of everyday life of suffering, sickness, senselessness, and death, lifting one’s eyes up and see the divine beauty in and around us and God’s creation will certainly will help to make a difference to live a life happy, joyful as well as beautiful.
Life is beautiful. Let's make it now!
- Olvin Veigas, SJ
01 April 2020
4. Try to learn something new: We are caught up in a strange world where nothing is sure including our life tomorrow with this Corona virus. However, our life is a long journey of learning and unlearning, being and becoming! As my professor of Latin in Gregorian University, Rome would put it bluntly, "Life is short, Latin is long, start today!" There is nothing which is late to start learning. Everything has a beginning. And a thousand miles journey begins with a first step. So why not learn something new or something that you had started sometime ago and then stopped due to time constrains? Now is the time to unpack your talents and unused energies. For example, learning a musical instrument, doing the painting, working in the garden or doing something with the flower pots that you might be having in your house which require attention. Try to develop taste for something which helped the humanity to develop a great culture of music. Listening to classical music is much more soothing for your brain cells than your binge music. Here are the applications that you can hear for free online classical music: KDFC, BR Klassik, etc.
5. Remaining positive: Until now, my concentration must have been more of "Having" than "Being". If I am harbouring enormous negative energy then now is the time to be positive. Let all the negative thoughts about people, relationships, things, affairs of the world, may go away from us. Let only the positive energy be our guide and come to us. Especially during this time when we are flooded with so many negative WhatsApp messages and how the situation of Covid -19 lockdown is affecting us and others so badly, being vigilant is essential to skip from this whirlwind of negativity. Let us be positive first and foremost about myself and think that God will show a new way to live our life in this tragic moment of our times. Here I am not alone but everybody on the face of the earth is threatened and intimidated. Until now I must have concentrated on "having more" but now on I'll try to concentrate on "Being More." Moreover, "Being More" will certainly will help me once this threat of Corona virus is gone and back to our normal life.
To skip from negativity, we could do something special in the morning when we spend a few minutes in prayer:
1. At the end of the prayer, I make a little commitment or resolution for the day and pray for the grace to fulfil it. I would not like to be negative towards others, or will not read anything that has to do with negativity. I'll try to avoid hearing negativity from others and even if I hear I will see to that I behave as if I have not heard it all. I do this commitment for few days until it becomes a habit of my life.
2. I take a commitment during my prayer on another day. I would be appreciative of someone in my family, neighbour or anythings else. I appreciate with words, (adjectives), actions and thoughts. I pray for such people. Even if someone is negative about me still I'll not utter a word against that person.
The above exercises could be done in order to help oneself in becoming «Being More» area of life, thus we can root out anger, anxiety, laziness, jealousy, etc. Believe that everything comes by practice and habit. Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) of the fame “Brothers of Karamazov” wrote so emphatically “only beauty can save the world”, «Красота спасет мир». In the wretchedness of everyday life of suffering, sickness, senselessness, and death, lifting one’s eyes up and see the divine beauty in and around us and God’s creation will certainly will help to make a difference to live a life happy, joyful as well as beautiful.
Life is beautiful. Let's make it now!
- Olvin Veigas, SJ
01 April 2020
8 comments:
Wonderful Olvin, thank you
Well written article. It's the need of the hour. Thank you olvin
Olvin well said...I liked pointed 4 and 5. Thank you. Amy
Very motivating blog Fr
Wonderful article Fr.Olvin. Very inspiring words needed for this time.
Beautifully expressed in a natural style. Keep writing Father. I love to read your blog. It's different. Thank you.
Good helpful reflections👍👍👍
No words seems to be sufficient to express the amount of gratitude I have for you dear Fr.Olvin.Your thoughts are source of inspiration and I wish to be inspired daily.The learning that is close to my heart is: "Before our human finiteness only Divine infinite goodness could fill us with unbridled hope". Thank you for gifting this article.
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