Lessons Learned in the Time of Pandemic | Collaboration Post

The pandemic has turned the world upside down. It has been more than four months since the day I bade goodbye to my colleagues at work and haven’t left the house since except for emergencies. While I am thankful to have a home where I can live and work out of without disrupting my health, financial status, the food that is put on my table and luckily, some regulated luxuries as well, many cannot say the same.

So many people are out of work, uncertain of what the next day will bring. So many people have contracted the virus and have died on the streets without medical care for lack of money or the fortune to secure a hospital bed. So many have walked the length and breadth of the country in an attempt to reach home on foot with children in their arms going hungry for days. I cannot begin to fathom the perils the pandemic has brought. None of us can.

While I hope to see a world free of the virus one day, many hope to put food on their children’s plate, if not theirs, for at least one night. But life goes on. Days trickle into nights and then nights bloom into days. Seasons change. So do our ways of living.

If this pandemic has taught us anything first hand, it’s that the human spirit is indestructible. It’s hard to kill the human spirit because it’s built for survival. It would adjust and shape its way around any curveball, it would create its own path and it would do what it has to do but it just won’t give up. And in this process, the toughest lessons are learned. The toughest but the most potent.

We are all fighting the pandemic in our own ways and in our own capacities. Some are staying at home, some are being forced to brave contraction possibilities to venture out of their homes for work, some have no place to call home, some are risking their lives to save millions from succumbing to the virus and some are volunteering for human trials of vaccine candidates.

We are all warriors. Each one of us. We just wear our capes on the inside. And we are all learning different lessons based on our circumstances. So my friend, Jerry Godinho (you would remember him from my first collaboration post) decided to put together the lessons learned by 20 bloggers and influencers from around the world on his blog, “Four Columns of a Balanced Life”. I am grateful to be one of them.

“I wonder if anyone can use the words ‘lockdown’ or ‘viral’ anymore without shuddering. People already have and are continuing to pay a huge price for the coronavirus. Migrant workers have been forced out of cities, hospital doors have been closed to the less fortunate, people have died on the streets. We may never know their stories.

Our minds are longing for a return to normalcy. But the biggest lesson of all is that nothing can be worse than returning to normalcy.”

This is an extract of my lesson. Click on the quote above or the image below to read the full post! My lesson comes at the 15^th spot.

It was amazing to be a part of Jerry’s blog again. He has done a great job in thinking up the concept and bringing it to fruition in this disturbed time. If you are feeling struck down by all the negativity that the pandemic has introduced in our lives, this post will work as a motivation to keep going.

Give it a read to see how women around the world are crushing the coronavirus woes with their willpower and creativity and redefining their lives to stay afloat. It feels uplifting to be a part of that!