Environmental Awareness!

It seems as though we have developed a heightened awareness of our environment in the last few months for a whole host of reasons. The first thing that I recall is my amazement at the quick rebound seen in the improved clarity of our ocean waters as well as a measurable improvement in our air quality. Then of course on the causal side of all this is the glut of oil reserves. We weren’t jumping in our cars to run an errand or sadly to take our children to ballet class or soccer or going out dinner and the theatre. And, we weren’t buying a plane ticket to go see our friends in Colorado or taking the family on vacation.

Closer to home we also have a keener sense of hygiene when dealing with others. We’re conscious of washing our hands frequently. Staying home when we feel sick and not infecting others and in general keeping surfaces much cleaner. When we go to a restaurant now, the primary odor we smell is bleach.

Our worlds have grown smaller. Wearing a mask when meeting someone new for the first time and sitting through an hour-long meeting is uncomfortable, our glasses fog up and it makes us feel anxious and irritable. We stay home to avoid these interactions and use the less spontaneous Zoom, where the nuances of others facial expressions tend to get lost in the video resolution. We wait in our cars rather than the waiting room, park in a numbered spot and call in our arrival, our temperature is taken in our car and we are asked questions as if we are going through customs when coming in from out of country rather than visiting our dentist who we have been seeing for 25 years.

I, like many others, am curious to know what the long-term effects of all of this will be. I love the following quote by Rumi: “Out beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrongdoing, there is a field—I will meet you there. It’s the world full of things to talk about.”

To conscious living,

Pamela Gallina, Publisher