By Covid Caged?

April 28, 2020 Jhaye-Q Baptiste 0 Comments

I MISS meandering.
     Though, unlike others have expressed by word or deed, I'm not gagging to get outside and engage in activities I deem more important than, say, staying alive.
     The Government decided, "Stay home" (not even just ours, but ALL around the world) for safety's sake, so hey, I can do that. Throughout history we've witnessed governments demand all kinds of vicious, appalling or asinine behaviour from their populations in the name of patriotism, so you would think that people could put things in perspective, eh.
     Wait. Wait. I'm not getting into governance here. This isn't Trinbago Come Good. This is Trinbago Shine On. Let me get a grip and get to glowing.

The lovely little things

     So ... I miss making my long, winding walks, catching all the small wonders I meet; that I love to share so much. I miss the exercise, too. What are long legs for if not for striding free? I miss seeing brimming sky, as opposed to bits I crane for out badly designed windows at my rental. I miss getting caught in the rain and the feel of grass underfoot.     
     It's not only Nature I miss. There are things like the library, long bus rides, eating Saturday morning Indian delicacy, jalebi, bought specifically at the Tunapuna market, because NOBODY makes it as good as that fellow there.
     Basically, like people all around our Earth, I miss muchly the lovely, little things taken for granted until it's not there. Then the question, "How long will I have to do without this?" or even, "Will it ever be here again?"
     

Bad to beyond

     Listen, happy, healing walks happened before World Wars I and II. Such walks happened after. People held hands and hugged before Cholera, Typhoid, Ebola. Such contact happened after. We are human beings; we don't just survive things like Covid. We truly live beyond it. 
     We tend not to remain unchanged by the challenges, however. What's gone? What's been taken? What have we become? We may think: Only time will tell. But what if we apply will and decide for ourselves how to go forward from these differences in ourselves.

"Will is wish, and liberty is power." -- Voltaire

     
Right now people crave freedom from Covid lock-down. But what when Covid no longer "traps" us? Will we be free, then? Will we really be? 
     There are so many things we could choose to do each and every day to live lives unfettered by addictions, apathy, non-productivity and shame. 
     Perhaps rough things like Covid remind us of this. Thus, while we think we're being caged by them, we're actually being helped to be deeply, meaningfully free.

Shine on

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