Page 29 - seniors today november 2020

First Person

Lockdown Gifts and

Learnings

If the pandemic has taken away a lot from us, it has also given us life lessons.
By Vandana Kanoria

When it comes to swimming through
a tsunami, there is no right way – and
definitely no wrong one. You do what you
have to do to stay afloat, using all your
resources of courage. S Kumar
This pandemic is not the first global crisis
we have seen, nor will it be the last, but
never in our lifetimes have we experienced
days that are so strange, threatening and
fraught with anxiety, “where the boundaries
of our worlds stop at the walls of our
personal cocooned sanctuaries. It’s an alien “Fear is a universal experience”.
reality outside - empty streets, abandoned We feel fear at the possibility of loneliness,
squares, cordoned-off religious centers and of death, of not having anything to hold on
padlocked entertainment hubs.” Where, to; when faced with the unknown – and
as Walt Whitman says, “It is not upon you one of the most insidious and frightening
alone the dark patches fall”.The degree of are viruses and bacteria on a massive scale.
our acceptance and the grace with which we Unforeseen, invisible, unforgiving and
adapt to the sudden descent of darkness may difficult to defend against, it is apocalyptic
be the greatest measure of skilful living. vision brought to life.

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #17 | NOVEMBER 2020 29