Faith Formation - "I Don't Want to Go Back to Normal"

I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO NORMAL

I want this moment to lead to a real revolution.  Inside and outside of us.

I want to learn the lesson from this difficult period, do not miss the smallest teaching,

I want to bring within me the emotions, reflections and thoughts

that it generates and make a profound change of life flow into me.

I want every job to be celebrated, respected and protected. 

From the doctor to the nurse, from the journalist to the teacher, from the worker to the employee, 

from the attendant to the bricklayer. 

There is no job more worthy than another: as we are experimenting now, 

even a supermarket cashier is a hero because she is currently carrying out a fundamental task.

I want each person to experience the time for themselves as we are experiencing it now. Without a slow, simple and dilated time, no person in the world can discover, truly rest and recharge. 

And put your creativity into action.  And discover their gifts.

I want each of us to spread our gift in the world. . .  just as it is happening now where courses, videos, initiatives of the most varied were born to be able to give a piece of us (the best!)

In this emergency, I want us to go back to living on the essentials. . . 

shopping in our countries, buying only what we really need.

I want the car to be used as little as possible. . . 

only out of necessity and not for leisure or convenience.

I want us to learn to withdraw from the world and admire it without our disturbance and noise.

I want our houses to become nests and not places of passage. . .

I want them to be the center of our days, to be cared for, lived and loved as sacred places.

I want the children's time to be restored. . .  

Especially for the little ones who, without moving around and daily commitments, manage to freely direct their energies towards play and creativity. 

And they are more serene. And calmer. And more true.

I want it to be favored where work from home is possible. . . 

Because in this way many resources (economic, physical and ecological) are conserved.

I want walks close to home to be considered precious and to realize that a distant holiday 

involves very large environmental, physical and economic costs and, perhaps, 

we can do without them or in any case decrease them considerably considering them a real luxury.

I want some distance to be kept. . . Among the people. 

Because it is only in this way that each person manages to draw their own boundaries and not to merge with the other.

And that's the only way we can be empathetic and bring relief. 

If, on the other hand, we merge, we get lost and are of no help, not even to ourselves.

I want hugs and kisses not to be given to anyone .

I am a very intimate and deep physical contact.

To be donated with care and attention so as not to lose all its value.

I want the elderly to return to having the role that has always belonged to them . . .

Keepers of stories, memories and wisdom. The closest to the divine and the mystery of life.

I want respect, solidarity, brotherhood with anyone to reign.

By staying at home we respect ourselves but also the health of others.

We are helping the weakest with beautiful expenses and initiatives.

We also started getting to know our neighbors, people who have so far been saying goodbye.

I want death to return to being present as it is now in our lives.

Because it is the fear of death that brings out the anguish.

Because we usually forget it, because we reject it.

I want it to become a painful but sacred event like birth, both parts of the same cycle.

We must return to venerate death as a god, to talk to each other, not to fear it, 

to consider it as the door that leads us to a different world. Like a new rebirth.

All this cannot come from a decree or a compulsion. It is born within each of us,                              

After having lived such a strong experience together. It's time for the turning point.

It is time for each of us to do our part really. Not to resume everything as before.

But to start again in another way. More creative. More responsible. More aware. More true.

I no longer want normalcy. I want the masterpiece.

~Elena Bernabè