Promising signs of healing?

While we are still confronted by this continuing pandemic, with no confirmed vaccine yet in sight, some signs of healing have appeared, giving way to hope and promise that a better tomorrow awaits us all.

When humans were compelled to stay home, noticeable changes appeared.

This tweet which went viral captures the promising positive healing of the earth –

“Wow, Earth is recovering. Air pollution is going down, water pollution is clearing up, natural wildlife returning home!” The tweet concluded: “Coronavirus is earth’s vaccine. We’re the virus.”

As fewer people travelled, air pollution decrease was noted in the US (Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Seattle), Italy and China. In many areas, including here in the Philippines, as skies cleared and turned beautifully bluer, distant mountains started to come into view!

Less road and air travel seems to have given our earth a much-needed chance to breathe. Less boat traffic has also cleared the waters for fish to appear in Venice canals. Decreased fishing activity allowed dolphins to play and swim around the Arabian Sea.

People have reported seeing and hearing more birds especially in the cities. Deer have been photographed wandering in the emptied streets of Nara as more monkeys assembled near Prang Sam Yod Temple in Lopburi, Thailand.

As people were asked to practice physical distancing, many started to be reconnected with nature more closely. Posts of beautiful flowers, colors, sunsets and sceneries were shared.

Hunger and lack of food supply made many realize that the earth is their ally for survival. Many have turned to gardening and farming. And many smiling faces and happy hearts proudly showed off their green produce!

Physical distancing has also highlighted the value of having significant others, of having friends, neighbors, and most especially, of being part of families.

Staying home allowed for more frequent and closer bonding within families. More joint activities in the kitchen, garden, and other parts of the house and the neighborhood have allowed many to rediscover the irreplaceable joy of being with loved ones, of being with one another.

The quarantine period has also allowed people to reconnect and rediscover themselves. With more time for self-reflection and self enhancement, creative skills and products surfaced. The new, enhanced self is also beautifully emerging.

One writer observed: “Perhaps the greatest healing taking place is within our hearts. We realize that what makes life worth living is the impact we make on others’ lives and the memories we share. It’s not about racing through life trying to accumulate things we can’t take with us, but about living mindfully and intentionally, in harmony with our planet,” in harmony with ourselves and each other.

Beyond this brief healing respite, the earth deserves much more healing. There is still poverty, hunger, inequality. The insufferable heat and high temperatures we are now experiencing are lingering reminders that we still have global warming as a formidable foe to beat. We need to do much more to allow our earth to cool down, to save ourselves.

Still, may this short respite serve “to show us how poorly we have lived our lives so far and to give a brief taste of how it could have been had we lived life differently. When the crisis winds its way out, and we return to the chaos and frenzy of living, will we remember that we have the right to see blue skies and faraway mountains, breathe clean air and listen to the chorus of birds? Or will we push these thoughts away, diving back into our computer screens, headphones plugged in?”

Will we remember to continue to heal ourselves, others and our planet?