When the world feels surreal and overwhelming, how do you find your way back to what matters most?
This past week has felt surreal. This past year has felt surreal. Maybe for you, even longer. On one level, my life continues as “normal” (whatever that is) – working, seeing friends, visiting family, taking holidays. LinkedIn has just reminded me that it’s International Women’s Day – maybe I should be writing a post about that? Yet on another level, I am keenly aware of how the world order is being reshaped before our eyes – old norms disregarded, alliances broken, a real sense that the past is by no means a predictor of the future.
This current war in the Middle East is really hitting me. Maybe that is an ignorant or privileged sentence to write, given how much conflict and pain the region has experienced for a very long time – but I never thought the UAE, a place where I lived for 11 years, would be attacked (along with other Gulf countries). It’s a line I never imagined would be crossed. But then again, there are many lines that should never have been crossed throughout history.
In times like these, it’s normal to feel helpless against the great waves of change that break repeatedly over our heads. So what can we do? I’ve noticed I am consciously spending more time with people I love. Seeing a play, visiting an art exhibit, taking a walk in the park. On Monday this past week, I reconnected with many people I hadn’t seen in ages at the book launch for Amy Fox and Nicholas Janni’s new book, Leading in Chaos (a much-needed book for these times). These are not frivolous moments – they are opportunities to strengthen the web of connection between us that we will need as we go through stormy days ahead.
If you are feeling overwhelmed – or in disbelief – about global events and are at a loss of what to do, perhaps try reaching out to someone you love and spend some quality time together. As Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer writes, “The wave will break. / We will be towed and tossed. / My friends, it matters / that we stay together.”
*Her poem, which I’m sharing below, was inspired by Camille Claudel’s sculpture “The Wave”, which you can see here.
