My neighbors were outside catching a bit of a break from their home computers (schooling and remote working). The wife and two children stood outside with their eyes closed, faces upward in order to get some needed Vitamin D from the sun for just a few minutes, while the husband was looking frustrated as he spoke calmly but loudly into his cell phone.
No one in the neighborhood deliberately chose to eavesdrop, but his volume carried across the empty ghost-town looking street mid-day.
“I don’t understand. I have my phone and my computer. I’m working more hours from home for you. Why do you want me to drive 55 minutes on the freeway to come to the office to sit in a crowded conference room for a 30 minute in-person business meeting with colleagues who have been traveling internationally catching-who-knows-what, at a table where we do not socially distance and bring that back home to my family? Won’t my active participation in a conference call accomplish the same thing in a safer manner?”
As I overheard this, I had an urge to give a standing ovation for him expressing his values. He offered a solution to the in-person meeting with a phone conference. He stated that he had been loyal to the company and even put in overtime, complying with present pandemic work circumstances and then declared the consequences of harming his family by his employer’s request.
I don’t know what happened after that as I was merely walking by. But what I do know is that one of their children had been in a wheelchair due to a debilitating illness earlier this year. The child is probably still very vulnerable undergoing treatment, and as we have gone back to the purple tier with a 10 p.m. California lock-down curfew as Covid-19 numbers continue to rise – one can never be too cautious.
Now up to 43 deaths of people in my local neighborhood community whom I have personally known succumbing to Covid-19 in 2020, watching bodies taken away on gurneys, I see things with eyes that maybe my neighbor’s boss has not seen. With my own sister recovering from Covid after contracting it from an asymptomatic RN in-between tests, and several friends losing their entire families, I can only applaud my neighbor for speaking up, using his voice of concern and the conscious care in trying to be safe and respectful at a time when people locally still refuse to wear face masks or adhere to the guidelines.
VALUES…These are important. PRIORITIES, SAFETY and RESPECT are imperative.
However, I scratch my head baffled in shock wondering WHY people still are NOT getting just how much this is indeed a dangerous time. How many more people have to die for stubborn humans to be awakened by the reality of what it is we’re all facing?
If there has been anything learned during this pandemic, we have learned who stands by their conviction and values for the above and battling others to fight for their rights to health and safety and how much more glaringly important this has become.
On the flip side, we are witnessing ego-centric wishes of others who demand ‘old ways’ of living, existing or doing business pre-pandemic without any regard to the safety and well-being to putting others at risk, with what we have been presented in our now present outcome.
We are in a time of uncertainty.
We still need to live each day and while for most of us, we do not know what that looks like globally in a cure, healing of humanity, continued struggles ensuing economically, financially, and survival for our flesh puppets worldwide… the idea of disregarding safety and health’s bigger picture isn’t just irresponsible, it is inhumane.
At this point of the game called life, we have choices. There will always be consequences and compromises with every choice.
They are not easy choices for a lot of people who feel their minds, hearts and will pull like a tug-o-war rope in their human existence, fighting their own selves internally trying to combat daily life navigation, but one thing is certain:
Communicating our personal well-being boundaries at this time is imperative for self (and humanity’s) preservation.
Your own well-being depends on how authoritative you are with your voice in stating what your health and safety terms are for yourself, which in turn is reflective of how much you respect your own human life and others. Yes, it is THAT revealing… showing just who you are, what you believe, how you act and above all what your character says about you.
Cognizant awareness is key. Using your voice could be life-saving for yourself and others.
Consciousness and mindfulness of what it is you do or don’t do connects to consequences.
It is astounding at how many doctors offices are still using community cup holders filled with ballpoint pens that are not sterilized after each use as crowded lobbies without social distancing have disregard for CDC guidelines. It is just as jaw-dropping at how touch key pads at self-checkout at gas stations, ATM machines and grocery stores are not wiped down after each use.
Yes, it is shocking how some grocery stores no longer have people standing outside the doors policing who enters mask-less; while many mechanics may go through the motions of placing plastic on your seat and floor, but will touch your car keys, steering wheel and gearshift with dirty gloves used on the previous car ahead of you… with a driver who may not have washed their hands or has been sick.
Like a teacher with a red pen, my mind noted every faux pas and violation like safety police.
After bringing these things up to the source using my voice for change, all I have encountered is a bunch of deer-in-the-headlights looks and shrugged shoulders from management everywhere, with no reassurance things will change.
I question the laziness, or what is being called coronavirus fatigue, or simply parts of humanity ‘giving up’ on the fight and wonder if this whole ‘survival of the fittest’ scenario is being pushed to the capacity of each of us paying attention to the tenth degree, all because others simply are not.
After taking a social media health sabbatical from all of the political season mudslinging, and seeing all of the violators and their selfish selfies posting mask-less public photos somehow proudly boasting their recklessness and disregard for other humans… I have ascended to a place now of asking a lot of life’s tougher questions. So now I will also ask these of you…
- 1) Do you believe humanity has given up the fight in getting to the other side of this pandemic?
- 2) Have you voiced your own terms/safety/health boundaries and has anyone disregarded, dismissed or actually listened to you?
- 3) Where have you seen the most improvement or decline in your human relating with regard to protocol within your own community or immediate circle of friends, family and colleagues? How about your own local city, county or state officials in charge?
- 4) Are you witnessing hypocritical violating actions where you live? How about among your circle?
- 5) Have you questioned the values of the people you’re surrounded by in terms of their own ability to have respect for their own human life and thus, how that radiates outward toward the bigger picture of others?
- 6) Do you believe that as we as a human consciousness have evolved through this, and that there will be greater change for the better? Or has it brought out the worst?
- 7) Do you believe this entire year has excavated the true colors of truth to surface in order for all of us to learn and grow to make more conscious choices and sift out/away what no longer resonates with our own truth?
- 8) What does your new future look like as you contemplate present-day awareness of humanity and their actions? How will you navigate this according to your own evolution as a human and as your soul’s higher mind processes your own communication values?
- 9) How have you witnessed your own transformation in how you have become more mindful of your own actions and the actions of others? Has it changed your choices and decision-making with regard to your own life and have you set a firmer foundation for your own values?
Asking yourself these questions as we approach 2021 will be revealing in terms of what stays vs. what goes in your life in what you communicate to yourself and to others as you reclaim what matters in your own health, safety and daily life.
If there was ever a time when the echo of your parents’ speech in your mind’s eye subconscious about peer pressure were to surface, it is now and it is time to reconsider the consequences of your own human people pleasing because someone has their own wishes in play that can compromise your own health and safety.
The ‘Oh, it’s just a quick coffee and we’ve been quarantined too long, life is short’ can now be the deadliest cup of coffee on the planet ensuring that life is even shorter if the company you keep is NOT as responsible as you.
How will you know? What trust issues will this bring up within you and are you willing to risk your own human life in placing trust in the request?
Just like my neighbor’s boss who was requiring an ‘in-person’ meeting in a crowded non-socially distanced conference room with a bunch of international travelers who may not have quarantined for two weeks…. Yeah, it’s exactly the same thing.
Corporate responsibility and individual human responsibility go hand-in-hand and it is time to question whether a headstone that says “had the highest sales during a pandemic” matters more than corporate willingness for contortion in finding safety alternatives in order to say “we care about our employees and their contribution matters, and we honor their health and safety” so that a headstone can be averted by this walking of the talk pivoting in protocol to protect human life.
Speaking up at this time for solution alternatives, can save your life and countless others and if others truly do care about you, value you and your own life existence and want you around, their actions will speak louder in listening than the demanding social convention whines of those who are selfishly requesting you risk your life by physical in-person presence to appease their own wishes, when it ultimately is not necessary to violate measures.
Yes, it is a tough time for everyone and it has been a long year, but to ensure we’re all here to even greet 2021, sometimes sucking it up to honor ourselves and respect each other can go the distance in extending our lifeline. Offering new problem-solving tactics, and implementing safety measures to improve ways of adjusting, adapting and protecting at the same time is a delicate balance, but one that will benefit for the greater good.
What we choose to believe and act upon now matters, even in the choices we make in using our own voice for our well-being and in respect to the well-being of others.
It is here we come to terms with how we’ve grown this entire year in articulating who we have become in the worst of times, so that we can move into the new territory of living a better life with values and communication of said values to live the life we all have left within us.
So what is it that you are communicating in terms of your own health and safety values?
Who is listening/paying attention and what are you learning from what this year has brought forth?
How we answer these questions depends on the work we do individually and collectively and what we continue to face going forward in a life path that has changed affecting everyone’s daily journey.
With that, I send you Lovely Souls love and light, health, safety and well-being wishes, strength and endurance for what is to come and hope that you find peaceful and comforting resolution to your own communication of your core values.
Gratitude & Blessings. Wishing all of you a healthy and safe holiday season.
Namaste.
Stacey Kumagai
