It’s the number one question I hear people asking during this time.
I’ve always had an overly optimistic view of humanity and many times, this blind faith has been put to the test. However, now, when everyone is feeling the effects of what’s happening, I’m feeling validated.
We’re still arguing, squabbling, being stupid and going a little stir crazy… but we’re proving that we care about each other.
It’s nice to see many of us stepping up any way we can.
After reading this advice from Dean Wesley Smith for writers to use this time to escape the real world into writing, I’m struck by its true simplicity.
Writing is just one conduit that can carry a person into another realm, albeit a powerful one. It sparks the imagination, discipline and creativity of a person into one giant thought bubble release.
When a writer gets into the “zone,” (or flow, or whatever else you want to call it), they live in their new world. The environment around them melts away as their focus is drawn to the landscape of the words in front of them.
Rather, their imagination being told through the medium of words. The skill of the writer will determine how well those words can sing and resonate with a reader.
However, there are many other escapes during this time and we would all be served by losing ourselves in one. Just be careful as there’s a difference between escape and numbing.
Binge watching shows, excessive video game playing, addiction to social media–these aren’t escapes. They’re numbing effects.
They provide temporary entertainment, and some may stay with you for a bit, but they pale in comparison to your own creative endeavours.
Escape into something that involves creation.
It’s more satisfying and there’s something to show for it in the end.
For curiosity sake, I designed a quiz for my students last year where they had to figure out how much coffee I drink in a day.
It was a unit on measurement, so I provided them the dimensions of my mug, told them how many cups of it I typically drank, then had them calculate and do the conversion. I honestly didn’t know, but was curious.
The result: 2.1 litres a day!
No wonder I always felt groggy and perpetually spun out. My body had built up such a high tolerance to caffeine, that only the most extreme amounts had an effect–and it was a negative one.
I’ve discovered the same issue with digital distractions. The carefully designed addiction qualities of our connected world keeps us hooked until we’re constantly checking and don’t even know why.
Our dopamine neurotransmitters (reward sensors in the brain) are overwhelmed and built such a tolerance, it’s possibly to spend entire days indulging in junk (distractions and food) with only a small feeling of elation.
Without a need to be on any device right now, I figure this would be a good time for a low drip dopamine diet.
For me, this means limiting my digital distractions to three times a day and limiting each bout to fifteen minutes. It also means cutting out snacking between meals and my biggest nemesis: snacking before bed.
This is something similar to the digital minimalism experiment I participated in a while back, which had many positive outcomes. However, the critical error I made was not re-introducing technologies back in a meaningful way.
My avenue this time is to scale back severely, without cutting out what I deem is necessary. It’s goal this time is to find reward in the boring and mundane.
It’s those slow drip activities that lead to meaningful progress towards greater outcomes in life. Those things like exercise, eating healthy, deep concentration, contemplation and yes, even writing.
Time to sensitize those transmitters once again.
There’s a meme going around that our grandparents were called to war and we are called to sit on our couch. We got this.
I smirked at first, thinking of my own grandfathers who both served in World War II and saw such atrocities that they never talked about it. Ever.
Then I wondered why this meme even started.
Could it be that in our constantly connected world, we’re afraid of solitude?
I know the first thing I teach my students when I introduce them to the discipline of meditation is how hard it is to be alone with your own thoughts. We’re so used to distracting ourselves, our brains go haywire at the thought of boredom.
As a practitioner and student of the contemplative side of religion, solitude is necessary. Even today, with the demands of teaching and a young family, I still find moments in my day to create space for myself.
Outside of the bounds of religion, solitude can be a liberating experience–as evidenced by Michael Harris and the hermit of Maine.
If we want to look at this in a new lens, this time of social distancing is a call for all of us. It’s time to recognize we can burden ourselves with the thought of boredom, or embrace reflection with the time being given to us.
As of now, my city is mostly shutdown for the next three weeks.
I’ve emailed my students, and their parents, to let them know their health and safety is my number one priority. Anything else classroom related comes secondary and we’ll figure it out as time goes on.
After all, this is a first time for all of us in this situation.
My heart, prayers and respect goes out to all the front-line healthcare workers and essential services as we hopefully work through this pandemic. It is my sincere hope that when this is done, people will understand how woefully needed our healthcare services are and spend time fighting to fund it adequately.
I also can’t help but think of all the holes we’ve built in the fabric of our society that are being exposed. Perhaps we will recognize it’s time to shift how we do things.
Our current systems that were built for yesterday cannot handle the needs of today. Change was always coming, it was just a matter of when.
In addition to the social distancing, I’m also prepared to digitally distance myself.
I don’t need to know every hour how much worse things are, what people are stockpiling, or what everyone’s thoughts are as they go into panic mode. I’ll check-in once a day with the official channels, then head outside with my family to enjoy the emerging spring air.
I’ll touch base with family and friends, then sit on the floor and play with my kids.
I’ll be writing a lot about this time in history. Whether some of it makes it online will be up for debate, but I want to be able to track where my thoughts were while this was happening.
I’ll be reading my backlog, planning the rest of my teaching year, doing some professional development, learning to keep sane and adjusting to a new rhythm.
I don’t expect it to be perfect, nor would I have that expectation on others.
This is either going to be a great time of self-reflection, refreshment and renewal…
or it might turn into The Shining.
I’ll see you on the other side.
Author: Michael Hurd
I entered teacher’s college a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young sap who was (erroneously) convinced he had the chops to be a great teacher.
Lucky for me, my first assignment as a student teacher was to be mentored by Mr. Hurd who showed me I was nothing more than a young kid with a big mouth and large ego. And he did it all without having to say a word because the depth and creativity of his classes humbled me.
Truly humbled me.
Since then, I’ve had the honour of being his colleague and to be in the front row of his writing career. This, being his third book, has been my favourite work of his.
However, I will caution that this book follows his Enter the Witness series and if you’ve never touched the waters of spiritual depth, you will be lost. This book is for those who have journeyed through Enter the Witness, Reference Point and are ready to make the next step.
This is what I love about it the most.
We are flooded with literature, posts and cute pictures that give a surface level taste of spirituality. It’s a fine enough entry point, but ultimately shallow for any type of growth. They become nothing more than pats on the back and words of encouragement.
This book will take you from the surface of the water and pull you right in.
This is not something you halfheartedly read as you fall asleep at bedtime. It requires your focus and commitment to entering into something more than just words on a page.
As a scholar of Religion and ardent student of it since a young teenager, I can tell you that many published pieces into in-depth topics can work itself into highly convoluted and confusing language.
Not here.
You won’t get lost in the writing because it’s top notch. I say with sincerity this is Hurd’s best writing to date. He’s managed to take very high level mystical concepts (many of which are barely translated into English) and present them in an extremely accessible way.
Mr. Hurd–you’ve once again humbled me without even knowing you did.
For the rest who are looking for something more than a superficial look at things, please work your way through this series and absorb the wisdom of a true craftsman.
In a world with ubiquitous streams of information bombarding us at all times, we are overloaded.
It is a burden to sort through and filter.
How are we to trust what is being offered?
After all, trust is easily broken.
However, there is also the insurmountable task of making sure you are understood correctly when it is your time to communicate.
Perhaps this is the time we’ve been really waiting for in our history.
It is not enough to endlessly ramble, post whatever comes to mind, message anything in a hurry or show unconcern for what is put out there.
By now, people have learned every word will be dissected and analyzed.
Every snippet showcased.
Every wrong sentence demonized.
Every incessant, incoherent rambling ignored.
We must be thoughtful before we speak, precise in our language and treat every word like it matters–because it does.
“I wish I could read more, but I don’t have the time right now.”
“I wish I could write as well, but I don’t have the time.”
“I wish I could work out, but I’m always so busy.”
“I wish I could try some more recipes, but I’m always in a rush.”
I wish I could (fill in the blank), but (something about not enough time).
Personally, I wish I could talk to people about the shows they’re watching, play some video games I bought years ago and never touched, or go back to doing magic shows… but I gave up that time to do what really matters to me.
Author: Terry Pratchett
It’s been some time since I dug into the “Wow, why haven’t you read this yet?” list.
All I kept hearing is how awesome Pratchett is and how Discworld is a brilliant series, especially if you’re looking for that off-beat type of humour.
Which, of course, I do.
And I love.
So I finally did.
In some ways, I’m glad I read this when I was older. I loved the quirkiness and playful way it was written. Age and experience allowed me the opportunity to see it all.
In other ways, I’m disappointed I didn’t read this when I was younger. Younger me would’ve devoured this entire series pretty quickly… with the added caveat of missing some of the humour.
Which would be unfortunate because there are some great one-liners in here.
However, there’s so much to love about this book regardless of the age you read it. In a time just before fantasy wasn’t considered publishable unless it hit that 100k mark (and nothing happened for 80k of that), this is a fun foray into the genre.
You get everything about what makes fantasy great, without all the padding and without taking itself too seriously.
I look forward to the day when I can dive back into this world and devour some more of it, taking time to really appreciate everything Pratchett created. In the meantime, I’m left with a good memory from a literary giant who was rightfully honoured for his work.
I’ve seen the thought experiment of visiting yourself in the past. There’s been enough science fiction (light hearted and serious) to bludgeon that theme to death.
Not to mention the cathartic exercise of writing a letter to your past self. Well… to some it may be angry and torturous.
However, I want to consider something different:
What if my future self came to speak to me right now?
What would future Vito say to me?
This requires an incredible amount of honesty on your part and really, it’s more an examination of conscience than anything else.
In some ways, it’s a point of wisdom manifesting itself.
Future me (10 years from now):
Listen, I’m not here to give you winning lottery numbers, stock picks or provide any other scheme to amass a ton of money.
Yeah, sure, we both would appreciate it, but let’s dig for some of the deeper things that can’t be purchased.
I think we both know that I’m not going to solve the problems you have right now. The issues you’re refusing to deal with are nothing more than the messes I have to clean up.
And let me tell you, those messes don’t get easier to clean in the future.
I know you think there’s not enough time because life is too busy. Hate to tell you, there’s not enough time on this end either.
You need to make some hard decisions and create time for those things we really want. I know you’re kicking yourself for wasting so much of it in your twenties.
You’re close to making that same mistake again.
There’s less available, but it’s still there.
On that note, take heed with the advice you were given when you first became a parent: the days are long, but the years are short.
Take care of your health. You think you’re feeling the effects of age (partially true), but what you’re really feeling is many bad decisions compounded on each other.
Don’t hesitate when an opportunity comes your way. Pounce on it and see where it takes you.
Even if you don’t know what it fully entails, go for it. You’ll figure it out.
Appreciate the people you have in your life right now, but know some of them will only be there for a season. Treat them well.
You’re really honing your crafts, both in writing and teaching. You still have a lot to learn, but keep pushing. No one ever became great at what they did by coasting.
Take ownership of your mistakes and strive for brutal honesty with others. Don’t be fearful of standing up for what you believe in, but accept you might not always be right.
Finally, in case you still haven’t figured it out, this is your life. It’s not some practice round so you can go back and do it again, nor is it the thoughts in your head of what would be ideal.
This is it.
Make it happen and enjoy what you can.