At the time of writing, the CoVID-19 coronavirus is rising against the backdrop of a world in crisis. Depending on the longevity of this pandemic and the rates of transmission and containment - essentially, how the virus runs its course - the stark reality is that humanity could well be observing the slow decline of the worlds’ superpowers, the fall of Capitalism, the collapse of the “global village”, a significant loss of human life globally (spread disproportionately between rich and poor) and the potential for widespread, violent civil unrest in the United States. If beleaguered nations begin looking to lay blame, it’s not impossible to consider the outbreak of war. However you look at it, it’s a pretty big deal. Even with the best outcome, even if those dire hypotheses I proposed, remain just that, one thing is for certain: there is no turning back.

Whatever world we knew before the governments of our planet locked down our cities and began closing our borders and forcing us to isolate from each other, under fear of grave illness, death, or criminal prosecution, is gone. Forever.

We live, however, in a binary world where every story has a beginning and an ending, every thing its opposite. There are both positive and negative outcomes. Complementary and incompatible ideals. But it is also a world where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, where as individuals we may seem powerless, but together we can be mighty; where on an unseen level, that which affects me, also affects you and what happens to one of us, happens to us all.

A shift in perception might be all that is required to enact significant change on how this surreal situation we find ourselves in, plays out. For as grim as the scenarios described above seem, and as possible as each actually is, it is also true that more than ever before, certainly in our lifetimes, humanity (that is, WE…) have a chance to change the course of the future.

Wherever we are, and however things appear in our manifest realities, right now, for the moment at least, we have been presented with a tremendous opportunity to re-think, re-imagine, re-focus and re-connect: with who we are, with our present, our future and our communities, on all levels.

I believe that Coronavirus is here in response to a world in crisis. Whether it was borne naturally of the animal kingdom before randomly or opportunistically crossing over into the human realm; or, even if it was engineered in a lab in North Carolina or Wuhan, and if so, breached its containment accidentally or by calculated and malicious intent; coronavirus is the great equaliser of our time.

The future is the only uniform commonality for all life on this planet; regardless of how it manifests for each of us, individually. It belongs to us all. It is the ultimate elusive destination toward which we are together propelled, wherever we are, in our little pockets of this incredible planet we all share. All of us. Equally. Shouldn’t we then, all share equal responsibility for its’ and each others’ care?

She’s the only one we have - the one many civilisations call, our ‘Mother’.

We are failing her.

We are failing the earth which nourishes us. At least, we have been.

Predating COVID-19, all nations, to varying extents, have been pillaging her forests, fouling her oceans and making a toxic soup of our atmosphere, the cost of which will be ultimately born by our kids and those who follow in our footsteps.

But now that everything has changed, everywhere… can we rewrite the script? Can we do away with the now deeply ingrained narrative of environmental injustice at the brutal hand of humanity, a fate nobody desires? Is this a chance to actually change direction and avert the disastrous consequences of our craving for convenience?

With perhaps, the exception of the spread of the virus itself, everything is slowing down. Our megacities are winding down.

As we isolate, traffic grinds to a halt. Animals edge in from the fringes, curious about this new calm in our streets. Skies become bluer and the air we breathe, cleaner. Purified. The narrative of environmental calamity and societal collapse no longer needs to be the dominant discourse with which we feed our minds. The pause which this "crisis” has created finds us an opportunity to re-write that script; to imagine a brighter future for all, to influence the trajectory of evolution.

Together, we can.

In our collective self-isolation, the time for reflection, education, armchair travel and the re-prioritisation of what matters most to us individually, and as part of a community, is now.

Our civil liberties, the health of our parents and the future of our little ones, depend on how we respond to these sudden and, for many, unexpected changes, that have been forced upon us; giving us an opportunity to crucially shift our focus from “me, me, me”, to “we, we, we”, in service of our planet and life on earth.

We must rise to the challenge and accept the call to action. How we do that and in what spirit, defines us.

What is your legacy? What will we leave behind? What does the future look like in this New World we are building together? What can you bring to the table?

Out of the fear of the unknown, out of an epidemic characterised for some by a horrible illness and a gruesome death in isolation, and the cruelty of the inconsistency of who suffers and who survives; from the loss of our livelihoods, our freedom to roam and explore, and even the sacrifice of the basic human need to touch and to hold; rises a remarkable opportunity to heal and transform; to change everything.

Participation is voluntary, but many argue, essential.

It’s our choice whether we do it with love and good humour, or bitterness, resentment and resistance.

Choose #LOVE and the floodgates of abundance are sure to open, revealing our boundless potential. The expansion of human consciousness into states of mind and being beyond anything known before, is only limited by our willingness to give and receive and how easily we perceive the kinds of concepts that science (proud sponsor of COVID-19) tells us, exist only in our imagination.

Think about that for a little while as you have gratitude for where you live and contemplate what calls you in your life beyond “social distancing” and “self-isolation”, when you return to the oneness we are all part of.

There’s no time like the present.

The time is now.