Call me a lunatic if you wish, but this virus is not about fearing the threat of sickness in each other’s presence. If all that we learn from this pandemic is how to create a society where we can be safely distanced from each other, we will have miserably failed to take this opportunity to tackle all of our problems at once.
This virus is here in the first place because we have stopped respecting nature and started to act as if we are separated, or worse, above it. This virus’ presence is more than likely linked to the way we have been disrespecting wild animals and creating conditions that should not exist in the first place.
Our immune systems have weakened because we have been feeding ourselves with processed food rich in chemicals and poor in healthy nutrients, we have relinquished physical activity and active transportation, we have been breathing air polluted with exhaust gases from our beloved vehicles, we have stressed our minds and bodies with long days of work, too often doing tasks that were not fulfilling our souls, we deprived ourselves from meaningful community interactions and whole-hearted conversations about how we are truly feeling, we grossly neglected our basic need for human touch and the chemicals it delivers (oxytocin promotes feelings of love, bonding and well-being, serotonin acts as a natural anti-depressant and dopamine interacts with the reward and pleasure centre of our brain. All of that hidden in a hug!).
If our new norm and solution is simply to keep distance from each other and create a latent feeling of fear and danger coming from close proximity, we missed a beautiful opportunity to be reminded of our human nature. It’s as it says; being human is being nature. Until we see ourselves as nature being, until we choose to reconnect with the nature within us, we will perpetuate an inhospitable environment for ourselves.
This is a time to reconnect with our human nature and heal our immune systems. This is a time to reconnect with the natural world and to heal the Earth so it keeps being prosperous, abundant and life-giving.
I may be a lunatic, but so should you.
Thanks you — necessary thoughts under a full moon (luna): yes. When our trees, gardens and shorelines are bathed under a rising moon at dusk, while mallards chortle, swallows swoop and suburban deer-neighbours browse, is when we see all we could lose if we don’t conserve nature-space in the city. We must never get distant from that, if we are to be healthy.