In 2010 earthquakes began ravaging Christchurch, NZ, where I lived at the time. What I noticed in the next almost decade while we dealt with the trauma and aftermath of the events were the stories. Everyone had several to tell. Everyone had a need to be heard. No one understood except those directly involved. Even those in other parts of NZ got tired of hearing our constant babble. But babble we did. To each other, to our families and friends, to our cyber friends and people we didn’t even know. Why? Because we needed to. We had lost people. We had lost homes. We had lost possessions. We had lost streets and infrastructure and safety. And most obviously, we had lost the face of the city. The skyline, decimated in a matter of minutes. The face of the famous church, crumbled. Life as we knew it stopped. Something else would grow from it, but it would take years and it would be entirely different than the comforts we knew before.
And so here we are again…
I am going to repeat those last two lines above. They describe precisely what we are living now. Globally.
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Something else would grow from it, but it would take years and it would be entirely different than the comforts we knew before.
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These are unprecedented times and we are right in the middle. Living. Surviving. And soon, thriving.
Kia Kaha is the phrase that defined life in those troubled earthquake times. It means “stay strong” in the NZ native language of Maori.
That is what we need to remember right now. Our world has been shattered. Our entire world. Not just our little world of our business or our city or even our country. But our world. We are all in this together.
I invite you to pause for a moment and take stock. What does life look like today? Because it won’t be the same life we lived yesterday. Tomorrow that life will have disappeared behind new legislation, new traumas, new events, new needs and new ideas. That makes it more important to tell your story now.
Communication is healing. It is a way of touching each other’s lives (while maintaining our 6 foot distance) Expression is a way of purging. If there is something you have experienced that you don’t know how to process, speak it, hear it, make sense of it in the telling of your story.
Listening is like a hug when we can’t hug right now. Lending an ear provides a level of comfort unsurpassed by any soft blanket or bar of chocolate. All of it is healing.
Take Action!
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Call someone – ask them their story. Share yours.
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Take a picture and share it . (This is my city…my street….the view out my loved one’s hospital room window.)
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Write a poem – this may be your gateway to the world of rhyming words and stanzas.
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Start a blog – we are doing this chaos all across the world, your experience is different and important. One thing I have noticed in my travels (before COVID) is that no matter where we are in the world…everyone is just doing their version of life. Driving, working, eating, visiting, parenting… “just life” happens all over the planet. Now? We’re all doing NOT life…all over the planet. Share your perspective.
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Start a journal- save it for your kids/grandkids/great grandkids. This will make history books. Why not tell your version?
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Just for fun…make a pros and cons list (Pro – I can wear devilishly mismatched clothes to cyber-work and no one can see. Con – I miss using three tons of toilet paper)
That being said, I am going to share a little story to show how it works.
My Story:
My sister is a doctor. She worked like a beast before this all happened. She’s front line. Running a hospital and seeing patients. Now, she works almost nonstop. She averages a 15-17 hour day, 7 days a week.
She lives on a military base (two states away from me). So, one of her neighbors noticed her comings and goings and decided to make life a bit easier on her. They began to take care of her yard, watering her little flowering plants that she painstakingly planted when she moved in, mowing her grass and doing whatever else needs to be done. She has no idea who. She just knows that when she looks out her window (on the one day she leaves the house after dawn), she can see her pretty little hydrangea and bougainvillea happily blooming.
And that, to me, is the power of humanity at work. It is the strength we all have inside of us. The caring. The compassion. …that perhaps just needs a bit of adversity to blossom.
That story is just too beautiful not to pass on! I hope it warms your heart as it does mine!
Happy Healing Stories!
My Spiritual Center 