Pandemic Anniversary Reflection: It’s time to Reimagine Before It’s Too Late

Kelly Bates

President

Are you feeling a bit weary and maybe even crumbling? You’re not alone. We’re almost at the one-year anniversary mark of the pandemic, a few months out from the storming of the US Capitol, and ten months out from the murder of George Floyd. If you’re working from home, you’re lonely, and if you’re a frontline or health worker, you’re exhausted. The anxiety we’ve all been experiencing is real.

What to do when we feel like this? We need to acknowledge it for sure. And we need to pause because the big reopening is coming and it may not be the cure.

Vaccinations are spreading, warmer weather is returning in parts of the world, and traffic is ramping up. States are rolling back to the “old normal.”

But that “old normal” is not what many of us want. We desire the old normal of hugs,  social time, and in-person experience. We crave the return of play and the lightness of habit and ritual. Yet, we don’t want to welcome back stressful mornings, back-to-back meetings, political rancor, and racist violence.

Before it’s too late, we need to reimagine the new normal that replaces old norms with ones like joy, rest, and connection. A new normal that creates oppression-free lives and systems.

It’s time to plan,
It’s time to gather your family and plan your new normal. What will you discard from the old, and what will you bring into the new, before the pace of life takes over?

It’s time to gather,
Gather your teams and ask, What will your organization live into? What can you do to build and maintain human-centered and anti-racist workplaces and communities?

And for all of us,
What do we need in order to heal and repair? It’s been a really tough time. How can we discover new ways to foster self and community care? 

The negatives of the old normal will clash with our individual and collective well-being unless we work now to get rid of them.

So, when the snapback of the old calls you,

Stop
See
Love
Slow down
And ask yourself,

What can I do right in this moment to bring in a new normal that centers humanity, equity, and living?

We now understand that living is loving and being loved.
It’s radical collaboration and sharing.
It’s large openings and small slivers of joy.

Look for the small invitations around you to create a new and better normal.
Jump in.
If we develop the practices of the new normal,
we have a chance to create the world we want,
not the one that will overtake us yet again if we let it.  

Read these related blog posts:
https://interactioninstitute.org/creating-the-next-100-years/
https://interactioninstitute.org/from-trauma-to-transformative-futures-four-dimensions/