Reflections at the time of the pandemic from Keralite in UK

By Anita Vincent (BA MA PGCE)

A Symphony in Time
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
sermons in stone, and good in everything.”

 – Shakespeare, As You Like It

2020 surreptitiously essayed an impromptu script into the fabric of our lives, the genre of  the tragedy generally being dictated by a minuscule virus. The drama that ensued hit us somewhere viscerally and we were left reeling, on the plane of a somewhat peripheral existence!

Piecemeal, we picked up, the tapestry of lost grandeur, and tenaciously pitched tent in the newfoundland of changed reality. Surfing each new wave, we re-established safe-places, and boundaries, negotiating  the parameters of freedom and imprisonment at regular paces, with deft valour.

Poised tenaciously at the dawn of a ‘new world order ‘ what can we gift ourselves as we re-emerge from the womb of this trauma? It is, sans any doubt, an era of enlightenment.

With deep reverence we gathered the preciousness of Life into our very depths. We caressed the truths that Life afforded us. That we are all links, in the endless march of compassion, towards the end of time. And, therefore, we bless ourselves and the myriad bonds we share with the people and with the planet.

Simple truths were again laid bare.

That we are healed and nourished, and made more potent when we let beauty, truth, music caress the depths of our being. Joy resides in finding good in everything. We have everything we need to make us truly blessed all around us and it is free… all we need is to throw a new blanket of understanding around it.

To be still and find “tongues in trees” , “books in brooks” and “sermons in stones”, to delight in the resplendence of a sunrise, the mirth of a birdsong, or open our hearts to the laughter of friends (and foes!), and in turn wipe their tears with the blessing of our affinities.

That when the tide turns again, “knowing” that we are a link in the chain, we live wondrously, for others.

When everything ephemeral is taken out of our lives, we will not place ourselves within self-wrought circles of avarice and greed and careless pandering.

Rather we will brace our souls with the valour of self-giving and touch the earth and our people with the grace and the beauty of the truth that pain and loss have taught us.

That in our essential oneness is our strength, that our hearts sing with inexplicable joy when it is empty of the self, and since we do not take anything away – we can leave behind the indelible legacy of a life, well-lived.