The world we once knew has changed, maybe forever.
During Lockdown Putin approves a law that could keep him in power till 2036, Elon Musk has
claimed the sky, launching satellites into space and many of us have lost our livelihood, our friends
or family and yearn for human contact and the outside world.
Maybe its all a blip and tracing a scent back from where we once were will be easy?
Since this has changed however, we may be asking ourselves, do we really want to go back…
The rat race, pointless meetings, the underground squeeze as we rush to a job we’re not being
paid well enough for and the daily grind of cars, traffic and pollution.
How many of us have come to a realisation that, since being forced to ‘have a break’, maybe we
don’t want to go back? Maybe we feel more fulfilled at home teaching our kids the knowledge we
value over school textbooks, tending to our shrubs and taking moments to enjoy the feeling of the
sun upon our skin?
There is a juxtaposition at play: the world somehow still is speeding up as the IOT (yes, that’s
Internet of Things) infrastructure is being built around the stratosphere of the globe. The US has
approved the launch of 12,000 satellites and last year it filed paperwork to launch an extra 30,000
Starlink satellites.
In our current world, data seemingly trumps gold as the most important currency and we now live
on our screens, fighting constantly to keep up with the news of a world we were not designed to
see all at once.
Yet we; humanity, slow down. We yoga, read books, learn skills we’ve been putting off for years.
We sleep in, cook grandma’s secret recipes, and check in on our family and friends. We clap
together and unite together in solidarity as the natural world flourishes…for now.
There is a collective grief for the ones tragically lost, our jobs, our livelihood, the life we once knew
and a new found appreciation for nature and the world around us we now yearn for.
So maybe the battle lies in control. Maybe theres a realisation of how little control we actually had
in the first place; as the government shuts us down we take heed and obey, for the care and fear
for our families.
We have power in numbers and this is certainly true, but does control lie in fear?
Before we come out of this isolation with the scraps of our lives we once knew as tatters in our
hands, but with the comfort knowing we’re all in this together, maybe its time to make it a collective
shift?
Its a big ask here….community over control.
If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s that no matter how much control we lose within our lives,
community still wins. No matter how discombobulated our career plans may seem, the fight for
FaceTime moments with our friends prevails all.
When we look back, our biggest regrets are always ‘’wishing we didn’t work so hard’ ‘spent more
time with my family’, so maybe ‘NOW’ is the time.
We can either lean into community, focus on endeavours that make this world a better place and
help nature flourish, or lean into fear. Fight back for our money, our wealth, our need for things as if
they offer protection. The choice is ours.
Scare a nation and they will obey.
Feed the world and suddenly we are all one power.
Some tips for reconnecting from League Collective, post isolation:
• Limit your devise use as much as possible
If we all spent less time on apps designed to keep us occupied, we would all have to look outward
to each other, to rely on each others company again for entertainment
• Find your local communities, whether thats a gardening centre, a community centre or local
charity – if you can’t find one, hey, start one! A book club, a weekly meeting to create change that
you’d like to see in your constituency
• Look for ways to make things that you do green on a larger scale…maybe we were driving to
work when we didn’t need to for convenience? Maybe we can cycle, eliminating our need for that
5k round the park we hated doing on the weekends and making more time to write that book
you’ve been craving to write
COVID-19 has shown us that businesses, families, friends and governments have the power to
make radical and decisive change when the moment calls for it. Can we shift a movement of fear
to power within community and love for our planet and the greater good? A collective community
standing up for what we believe in? There is power in numbers and the choice and power is in our
hands… We just need to remember it.
Photography by Lucia Garcia? @Luucialove Ballerina: @karisscarlett
