At this time of humanity’s relatively short life on this planet, a single natural disaster, undetected with the naked eye, is shaking us up big time. I think I can safely speak for the rest of my species when I say that this was so unexpected, so life-changing, and has probably moved all of humanity to the other side of the looking glass. We are thinking of new ways, new perspectives on many aspects of our life. Some of us are adapting quicker than others, but we are ALL affected, one way or another.

But what does this all mean? Is this the beginning of the end for our collective consciousness? Or are we just going to sail through this and then bury it and the lessons learned in the past, dwelling only on the magnitude of the global disaster? How will our species recover?

One thing I’ve noticed in the last few weeks on social media was just how ‘social’ we are/have become. Someone called this ‘social distancing’ perhaps clinging to the traditional physical nature of socialising, but what is increasingly becoming evident is that we are reconnecting at an unprecedented level, whether that’s between long lost friends, families in different corners of the planet, teachers and their students, artists and their fans, and most strikingly, strangers sharing and supporting each other. If this is not social connection, I don’t know what is!

Wherever this leads us, I strongly believe it is not going to be the end, sad nor happy. There is so much to take from this, so much suffering to honor of those who battled (physically speaking) through this and recovered, and those who lost their lives – a HUGE tragedy. There is also so much joy to celebrate; the foundation of our existence; love and compassion have triumphed amidst our darkest hours. Our world will not come to an end. The planet will survive this (asteroids and ice ages didn’t kill it, so this one won’t). But the big question is, in what ways will WE survive, collectively and individually? What stories will each of us take with them from this? How are we now the New Humans? Only time will tell…