Que Sera Sera

Sigh! The World is going through a pandemic. It took me a while to accept it, but it really is. Localites is a global community, and all these while we constantly celebrated our differences, for the first time ever, we all are going through the same external experience - the pandemic.

There were a lot of things that were already wrong with the world and now it has all become so much more alive. And no matter where you try to find hope, it comes with a little distress.

You could rightly say oh the time is an opportunity to breathe, to take a break, to reflect and to grow, but we cannot ignore how the poorest of the poor or the stateless are the ones getting affected and dying of starvation. You could rightly say that Mother Nature is reviving, but at the stray animals and the shelters, and several human dependent communities of animals still suffer. Then there are the doctors fighting for us, the depression becoming stronger in certain lonely rooms, and the economy falling.

Sigh!

All of this, directly or indirectly, affects us. As we scroll and scroll, a part of our mind worries and lives in fear. The fear is a different one for all of us - but it is real. Some fear is fear that makes us intelligent. It tells us to run away from danger, to stay safe, to prioritise survival. The other fear makes us weak. In capable of handling or emotions, losing our mind and makes us less capable of facing the hard times we are in.

For people who love traveling, and thrive on meeting new people and places, it is a tough test as we now have to find meaning in our lives in the four walls of our houses. The fear only cripples us more.

Sigh!

So here are a few pieces of wisdom for your mind and the fear it holds. Resources and news are both exhausting us right now in different ways, and the only thing that can help us survive this is wisdom. Wisdom that got Vicktor Frankl out of his Nazi Camp days, Anne Frank stay brave in her attic and Martin Luther come out of this exile.

Let us first look at what we have already been through. Realizing that we were going through a pandemic is not very difficult than losing a loved one. It comes with a certain level of grief and its stages. First we went through denial and ignored it as much as we could, to where we felt anger, about not being able to go places, we bargained, we tried, and somewhere people are either in the depression stage or the acceptance stage.

As we go through the everyday turmoil, another thing that we need to remember is, that in their true authentic essence, emotions are neither positive nor negative. They exist and they are felt to help us deal with the mess in our lives. As much as we need to wash our hands, we need to check ourselves and see what we are truly feeling, and how is it helping us deal with our unique experience of the pandemic. Psychologists have time and again taught us that wisdom lies in feeling as much and as deeply as you can, and using these feelings to understand yourself better.

This applies to every part of our life. You could travel the world, but if you come back without knowing one thing about yourself, it was not worth all that while. Whatever it is that you are going through in life, is an opportunity to know yourself better on a deeper level. Whether you spend your day indulging in 7 different hobbies, or lying on the bed all day, it doesn’t matter. What matters is did you pay attention to your thoughts and feelings while doing them, and become more aware. We come into this world and spend our lives trying to understand it and make sense of it, while the true purpose of our existence lies in simply understanding ourselves.

Vicktor Frankl’s popular saying keeps calling me back to it. Every month, as I read more and more about the world ending in several possible ways, I feel trapped and I desperately look for some kind of freedom. At these moments, his words pop up - “Between stimulus and freedom, there is a space. Between that space is our power to choose our response. And in our response lies our freedom and our growth.” And he did not write these words while sitting on a beautiful mountain or a river suitable for enlightment but in the middle of a Nazi camp, in the middle of misery and everything but freedom and growth.

To move from the turmoil within, to the turmoil outside. The growing concern for our families, for our lives and for the several running projects of our life, keep crippling us down. The worst part about the pandemic is its uncertainty. We don’t know what the other side of it looks like, and when will it arrive. And as I look for wise words in philosophies and history to help all of us deal with this, what really helped were these simple words from a song. The song came out way back in 1956 and it’s simply a song about life where the lyrics take us through different stages of life, but at the end of each verse they sing - “Que Sera Sera, Whatever will be, Will be. The Future’s not ours to see; Que Sera Sera” The song will fill you with a certain relief. Whether you are in a hospital, a shelter or in your house, simply singing the song, will help you become comfortable with the uncertainty that surrounds us right now.

There is so much more to seek strength from, and to find wisdom in. We hope you keep finding strength from the online communities like ours and others and we will keep praying for the safety of all of us on this earth. Till then, Que Sera Sera!

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother what will i be
Will I be pretty?
Will I be rich?
Here's what she said to me

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera, sera

When I was just a child in school
I asked my teacher what should I try
Should I paint pictures?
Should I sing songs?
This was her wise reply

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera, sera

When I grew up and fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will there be rainbows day after day
Here's what my sweetheart said

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera, sera
What will be, will be
Que sera, sera

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Thanks for reading. Stay home, stay safe.

Have a good day!
Team Localites