You didn’t come this far to only go this far…
This morning during my virtual HIIT workout with ‘Coach Koe’ he said these words,
“You didn’t come this far to only go this far…”
WOW did that ever hit home for me. 2020 has, in many ways, felt like a bad dream that I have been searching for a way out of. Since March, I have been looking for a secret button that makes the wall of a room slide open into a brilliant paradise or a trap door that I have missed so I can silently slip away from the evil predator that is Covid-19 and come back in 2022 when it has all been figured out. As you all know those secret buttons or trap doors don’t exist and any means of escape looks like a walk outside, a talk over zoom/facetime/phone with a good friend, streaming videos or a nice glass of rose then rinse and repeat.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was looking for advice for how to survive what I thought was going to be a few months of isolation and I thought about astronauts and how they endure long-duration space missions. I read the words of many of them and thought about their advice; make a daily routine, exercise, set goals, maintain a work life balance, communicate etc. I wondered why I was not capable of doing these things and how come I seemed to be lost floating in space while securely tethered to Earth? Then it dawned on me. These astronauts train for years to endure the social isolation from family and friends involved in going on a long duration space flight and each one of them has a team on Earth monitoring and supporting them when they are in Space. We had no preparation for something like this pandemic and within one week a light switch was flipped and our way of life looked very different world-wide - unless you were an astronaut floating in space, in which case your day to day probably didn’t look very different but you were getting word that something was not right on planet Earth.
Those first few months were not pretty, and I know I will look back at them with a kind of awe as they made me re-evaluate everything about my life. I had been saying to many friends that it had not escaped my attention that I was creating a piece of art about slowing down and listening when I seemed incapable of slowing down and then BAM – full on lock down and slow down detonated. I know why I wasn’t slowing down – it was because I don’t like going slowly – I never have, so the shock was intense.
Early on in the pandemic one of my friends, Kerry McKenna, said I needed to start thinking about parachuting into the schools virtually so I could continue my work as a teaching artist. She helped me believe in the work I do when I was spinning out of control and in many ways, she pulled the emergency release cord on the parachute, so I survived the free fall. Guess what? I am now safely parachuting into schools virtually. I am still working out the kinks but enjoying the adventure. How many of you have had this same experience where you never thought you would be doing what you are doing the way you are doing it right now, but you are?
So, we are now nine months into this adventure and the words ‘You didn’t come this far to only go this far’ really resonated with me this morning because we still have a few tough months to get through as the vaccines roll out. More than ever, we need to follow the advice of people who have endured long-duration isolation and keep our spirits up. Make a daily routine, exercise, set goals, maintain a work life balance and communicate.
I have always loved hiking and getting to the destination I set out to find. Many friends and family members will attest to being frustrated hearing me say ‘it is just around the corner’. Well friends, the end of the pandemic is just around the corner so let’s help each other get there, as we have been doing since the beginning, one day at a time because; “We didn’t come this far to only go this far.” Thanks Coach Koe and Happy New Year to all of you.