Hello my friends.
The other day a friend of mine shared something I found to be incredibly profound.
We were talking about resilience — which is, I suspect, something many of us would like more of right now — and he said…
We often talk about resilience as bouncing back, right?
Well, at its best, resilience actually doesn’t bounce BACK
It bounces FORWARD
I love this
As you know, right now there’s a lot of conversation about the “new normal”
And if you watched Episode 4, you know how I feel about that phrase
So, in active co-creation of our “next normal,” how can we bounce forward?
In many respects, i believe forward is the only option we have
Going “back” is an illusion.
As far as we know, the universe only expands in one direction and that’s forward.
We can’t un-see all we’ve seen during this time.
We can’t un-feel what it felt like to have more autonomy and freedom and flexibility
If we’re parents, we can’t forget the moments of joy our kids gave us between our work projects
And let’s be clear, those same kiddos also gave us some stressful moments, too
But more often than not their smiles lifted me up in a truly powerful way — when I was able to stop long enough to actually SEE them
So, if we even could go back, which I don’t believe we can, in so many ways we shouldn’t want to
Don’t get me wrong, some things will be wonderful — eating out, and seeing movies, and gathering with friends in the park… all beautiful things, and I can’t wait to do them again.
But for so very many of us, when it comes to WORK especially, the last normal was mostly a gigantic existential disappointment
When it comes to those things, it would be a tremendous WASTE to go back — we would have gone through this entire experience and have learned nothing from it
SO, when we think about going back to normal, let’s be very thoughtful and intentional about which parts of normal are worth going back to.
My friend Mark put this quite eloquently — he said, “I don’t want our last normal to be our next normal”
WE get to create the future we want, so I vote we make it a better one.
See you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com