Margaret Silf, one of DLT’s best-loved writers, hopes we will find a ‘new different’ rather than return to the ‘old normal’ when our journey through lockdown is over …
When I wrote Soul Journey, I could not have imagined how the world would look just one year later. Now, as I look back over my thoughts at the start of 2020, it seems like a good time to check out the steps along the journey I mapped out then, and see how they apply to the place where we now find ourselves. So this is a gentle invitation to you to review your own journey through successive lockdowns and inevitable losses, as together we look forward to a future that will, I hope, not be a return to the old normal, but a vital and historic step forward to a ‘new different’.
Invitations
The book begins by reflecting on a few invitations to engage more deeply on our soul’s journey. The pandemic has offered us some very different, unexpected and sometimes very unwelcome invitations to keep on walking through the darkness of a new situation. For me this has been a time of invitation to leave behind, quite radically, my former lifestyle and even the place where I live, and be open to new ways of moving on. For the teachers in my grandchildren’s school it has been an invitation to embrace drastically new ways of teaching children online, and I am full of admiration for all they have achieved under such enormous pressure. I wonder what invitations the pandemic has sent to you?
Signposts
There are signposts along our soul’s path, and in lockdown too there have been signposts. The most obvious one has been a very large ‘No Through Road’ sign, putting a sudden end to almost all of our former activities and plans. But there have been other, more promising signposts, such as ‘Diversion’, ‘Alternative Route’ and ‘Try doing things differently’. I’ve been so encouraged, for example, by the way choirs have learned to practise and perform remotely. Some of us have even learned how to cut each other’s hair, and bake our own bread.
Obstacles
As on our soul journeys, however, there have been huge obstacles to overcome. There is an inevitable resistance to the challenge of change, and a sometimes overwhelming nostalgia to go back to how things were, when life seemed settled and predictable. For many of us there has been the hurdle of unfamiliar technology, making us want to throw the laptop out of the window in our frustration over flaky Wi-Fi and stilted Zoom or Teams calls. For millions of us, there has been a seemingly insurmountable hurdle to face, in the loss of our livelihoods and the uncertainty of any future employment. Others have faced the tremendous heartache of not being able to visit loved ones at home, in hospital, or in the worst case, not being able to attend the funerals of those we have lost. Even the human process of grieving has been undermined. We have had to re-imagine ways of finding and celebrating presence in the midst of painful absence.
Fresh springs
In the book I also observed how our soul journey is refreshed, often in unexpected ways, by what I called ‘fresh springs’. Where have we found these during this year that has been like no other? When life came to a sudden standstill at the beginning of Lent 2020 there were days that felt to me like a blessed retreat. I was lucky, in being able to go for long country walks in the surrounding lanes when even the weather was kind to us as spring unfolded at her own pace, without our interference. No vapour trails in the skies, even though I now live not too far from two international airports. Birdsong filled the air instead of traffic noise, and the wildflowers and the wild creatures reclaimed their place in the natural order, free to blossom, to thrive and to roam, while human beings lived in cages.
For those fortunate enough to live in supportive families, the gift of more family time was a blessing. For those who were isolated, often new channels of support opened up, as we all tried to look out for each other more intentionally and take especial care of the needs of those who were shielding. Indeed, there have been many oases of peace and kindness along what was to become a long, hard road.
Rocky crags
Perhaps, as in our spiritual journeys, such times of consolation served to prepare us for some very rocky crags that we, as a human family, would have to climb. Now that we have arrived at the second and third periods of lockdown, undoubtedly the novelty of peace and quiet and no commute to work is wearing thin. Nerves are fraying. Families dealing with working from home while also home-schooling young children are suffering burnout. The pressure of rising infection and death rates has brought our health service perilously close to breaking point. How can we collectively, actively and permanently support those on the front line, in health and education, emergency services and the supply of our daily needs?
Non-compliance with the lockdown restrictions by a small but vocal minority has accelerated the risk to everyone, and caused high levels of resentment and anger, provoking the question: When and how does individual liberty need to give way to the greater good? We have been challenged to look closely at ourselves and our behaviour and ask: How can we find new and better ways of being human? Is it time for our insistent drive towards competition to yield to the higher call to co-operation?
We have been forced to learn to live with existential uncertainty. Has this led to a breakdown in trust, not only in our governments, but in the fabric of our society? There have, incidentally, been several recent tragic deaths of winter climbers on the treacherous K2 mountain. ‘Rocky crags’ challenge us in extreme ways to work together, support and hold each other through times of mortal danger and to recognise our total inter-dependence.
Endings and beginnings
Soul Journey ends with a reflection on ‘endings and beginnings’. As we move into Lent 2021, the time might be right to reflect back over the past extraordinary year and take stock of what we have had to let go – our assumption of continuing good health, our freedom to travel, contact with our friends and family, our job security, our homes, those we have tragically lost? And what are we being invited to embrace: new ways of communicating and connecting with each other; a heightened awareness of the needs of others and the sacrifices made by strangers to keep us safe and well; the deeper meanings of faith and how to forge community when we cannot be together; a new vision of how we want to shape our future together as co-residents of planet Earth, along with all forms of life and diverse ways of living it?
What is coming to an end in your life, and where are your own new beginnings? What, in our human life, now needs to go extinct, to make way for the next chapter in the great and sacred story of Being Human?
Margaret Silf is a spiritual explorer who travels widely, engaging with other pilgrims, both through her books and on the retreats she leads. The author of a number of books for twenty-first-century soul-adventurers (including Landmarks, Hidden Wings and Born to Fly), she is also a mother and grandmother and makes her home in Staffordshire, England.
Soul Journey: With scripture and story towards the best we can be - daily readings suitable for Lent or for any time of the year by Margaret Silf is available now in paperback from dltbooks.com and all good bookstores.
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