Why we will come out as better people after the COVID-19 lockdown

Artwork by Marie Gabrielle M. Faro/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — I’m writing this in the middle of the night while sitting on my sofa bed which is where I’ve been sleeping on, eating, lounging about, and using as my work station exactly five weeks on shut inside my tiny rental space as the deadly COVID-19 pandemic is still on a rampage like an invisible monster.

I celebrated my birthday three weeks ago thankful that I didn’t plan anything that would just get derailed because of the lockdown, but a little sad that the virtual celebration I planned with my immediate family members and some friends didn’t happen because the restaurant we all planned to order food from decided to close all their stores due to the risk of spreading COVID-19. Thanks to my luck with a market shopper online, I was able to cook chicken tinola and menudo which lasted several days for me and my sister to enjoy.

Five weeks on and I’m starting to think if I need to remind myself to be careful what I wish for. Long before the news about the virus, I’ve already been fantasizing about working from home regularly. When telecommuting finally happened it has been a dream come true for an introverted person like me, but of course the dire circumstances surrounding this is unwanted. Then I’m reminded that life is always on two tracks—we are faced with both blessings and battles all the time. And I have this confidence that when the lockdown is over, we will come out better people because of it. Why?

Imagine a post-pandemic world that is ready to welcome a transformed humanity. I’m excited to be part of it and I believe that this is already happening for many reasons.

• We slowed down, rearranged our priorities, and decluttered our lives. Because of the lockdown, we were forced to put a break on the busy-obsessed culture we have fueled in the name of having better standards of living. I now have no excuses to not carve out time for the important things that make my days much better like having a quiet time for prayer and devotion first thing in the morning, exercising, or even going back to writing which I’ve put off doing for a long time. Not going out also saved a lot of unnecessary expenses eating out, buying things impulsively, and keeping up with appearances.
• We are more grateful for what we have and the people who are most important to us. I couldn’t imagine how I would cope if my sister is not with me. We miss our mom who is far from us and the opportunity to be together spending time with my nephew during his summer vacation. Now that we don’t even know when it’s safe to see each other again, technology helps us keep in touch anytime and more often than we used to. I’m also grateful that I can work from home without problems and have a stable income that can provide for our needs. If you also have the same fortune as mine, we are very lucky and I hope that we can be a channel of blessing to those who need us during this time. Just because my mobility is restricted because of the lockdown doesn’t mean it will stop me from helping those who are within my reach in my own little way and it’s not even necessarily just financial help. There’s plenty of opportunities now to show love to one another and no kindness is ever wasted.
• We are living healthier and happier lives. Because we are spending most of our time inside our homes, many of us can now properly eat, sleep, and spend quality time with ourselves and with our loved ones. So many who haven’t had the time to cook or try to do it before, my siblings included, now turned out to be good in the kitchen. There’s this joyful time to learn new skills, hobbies, and rediscovering things that we enjoy doing. When the lockdown ends and things gradually return to the daily grind, we may find this time a distant luxury again, but we may also learn to prioritize these things we take for granted. Another thing that I appreciated is how more people have now been conscious of practicing cleanliness and personal hygiene. I’m looking forward to seeing this as the new normal. With due respect to our frontliners and to those who are exposed to the virus, I wish them great blessing and the reward of good health and well-being soon; and love and prayers to the ones left behind of those who succumbed to the virus.
• We are being refined and are becoming more resilient because of difficulties we face. Before COVID-19 occurred, my family has been facing setbacks due to an unfortunate event we had to go through last year while on a supposedly joyous occasion. In the middle of painful and difficult times, we find that there are still so many blessings and positive outcomes to be grateful for. In a way, that also prepared us to have a more peaceful mindset during this lockdown, and we are thankful to be safe and healthy amid the pandemic. That experience also made me realize that when we stand to lose those which are precious to us, in whatever form it may be, it is where we put our faith and hope that will help carry us through. In our case, trusting God’s unfailing love and sovereignty has been more real in our lives now because we went through so much. It’s also my prayer that more people will realize where they put their faith in, because we all put our faith in something and it will ultimately determine the course of our lives.
• We are being called for a higher purpose. As we go through this battle together, my hope is that we think about the post-COVID-19 world and see how we can come out as better people after the lockdown. I really think that humanity is being transformed right now and we can choose how much we are changed by this pandemic at least as individuals. After all, we are the stewards of this world. There is always hope.

The author was a former writer at the Bureau of Agricultural Research.