Our fear of the unknown, our distaste for uncertainty has been brought to the forefront.

 
Suddenly, everything in our society is different.

It’s unknown how the pandemic will end. The impact on our infrastructure, our workforce, our economies, our communities, our friends, and our families is unknown.

The future is uncertain. And for many, that’s scaring them into a panic, into paralysis.

The future is uncertain. These are scary times. No one knows how it will all unfold.

BUT

That isn’t different from the truth before the pandemic broke out.
 

The future before was uncertain.

 
There were scary things happening before this came into our awareness.

No one knew what the future held back then either.
 

Our future never was certain.

 
We don’t know what will happen.

We assume that we’ll wake up tomorrow morning, but we don’t know for sure that we will.

We get into our cars and drive down the highway, but we can’t ever know for sure that we won’t be involved in an accident.

Many of us go to our jobs believing that our paychecks are secure, but we’ve all either lost a job without warning or know someone who has.

We eat and drink assuming we won’t contract a parasite that makes us sick, but food poisoning happens.

We don’t know what will happen.
 

The future is uncertain. It always has been. It always will be.

 
What’s different with this time we are all in that makes it all feel more uncertain is that it broke the mold on what we considered normal. It didn’t just fracture the illusion of security, of certainty that so many held—it shattered it.

I hear people frustrated with the experience of living through a pandemic, wishing that things would just “go back to normal.”

That normal no longer exists.

None of us will ever be able to go back to the before because we can’t un-experience this pandemic experience.
 

Our awareness of the illusion of certainty has been broken.

 
And once you’re aware of something you can never become unaware of it.

Oh, you can try.

You can deny it.

You can try to be like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.

But you’ll know. You always know.

Awareness sticks with you.

And awareness is a persistent, nagging motherfucker when you feign ignorance and try to go on as before.

The before is gone.
The now is here.

Have you accepted the truth of this yet?

I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t know that I have any sage advice.

What my experience of being alive during this time and being a witness to the words and actions of others has highlighted is that too few human beings are using their powerful brains to think—to think critically.

So, I guess that’s my “sage advice.”
 

Think. Think critically.

 
Take this time of mass uncertainty to think, to really think and that means asking questions. Get really fucking curious.

Question your thoughts.
Question your beliefs.
Question what you’re being told.
Question your actions.
Question how you’ve been living.
Question your goals, your desires, your dreams.

Question.

Question it all.

Question everything. Including everything, you’ve just read.

And remember, even with all this uncertainty you can still Love Your Life and Live Your Dreams. It all begins within.