RENAISSANCE 2021
I am not sure I have ever seen people so happy to see a year end, as most folks I know are to see 2020 end. Never being much for resolutions or for New Years’ Eve partying -this could have been a week that passed much as the last several… but a good friend of mine called my attention to a New York Times article that put a new spin on things for me. It was an interview with a 70’s+ plus woman in Bologna, Italy who has been studying pandemics for the greater part of her life. Never ceases to amaze me what people study-or how important it might be at a time we could never have anticipated. Of course sitting in Italy in the last months, has allowed her to see its effects up close and personal. She shares an interesting history of the Bubonic Plague and what happened in Europe following its devastating impact.
You guessed it – it’s the title of my blog…the renaissance followed and in fact throughout history every pandemic we know of has been followed by a renaissance. It’s the signaling of a “rebirth” -a new kind of freedom to imagine – to invent and to create. Something in the human spirit is set free after being locked into a consciousness of fear for an extended period of time – and facing life and death in ways quite unexpected.
Its funny how you can feel things coming – a kind of intuitive sense that something magnificent is on the horizon – and I would add IF we are looking for it…that old Heisenberg principle of “an object is changed by the observer”…thing. I can feel something new in the air – the winter air which is quite cold where I am now. Since it is not the dawning of Spring – it must be something else. I believe we are entering more than a new date on the calendar – and I want to be ready. Like a midwife or doula – side by side in labor with the expectant Mother (earth) for the birth of greater understanding, wisdom and love-intelligence. Its tempting to think it’s far off – or its going to be soooo difficult ..or there is very little chance. Imagine if the artists of the renaissance had felt there was nothing new to create and hadn’t allowed their spirits to soar.
I invite you to consider what you want to bring to life in 2021 and begin today. Write a poem, draw a picture, take a photo, put on your rose colored glasses and begin. The next several weeks I will be writing on this theme – renaissance time for everyone…not just a few. Lets do it together.
(oh and if you are up for a long read from the New York times -here is the article )
