Russell Wardlow

What came first
fear,
or
panic?
Did fear, create the panic?
or
Did panic, create the fear?
Then what created the discrimination that ensued
opportunity
Fear is an opportunity for truth to surface
and the truth these days,
is good enough reason to panic
because discrimination is still-
the real pandemic

When we react, we don’t have the ability to use our full set of cognitive skills, let alone our whole heart, we just make do with what the moment provides instead of providing the moment by becoming proactive which gives us time to associate both our minds, intellect, imagination and creativity and our hearts compassion and empathy.
We are flawed, so nothing can be wholly stopped, but we can negate our lack of effort and think more for ourselves and if then able, become more and then do more for others.
This pandemic is a poignant example of our humanity, fears, and connection to each other.
It shows both our worst and best selves.
How quickly we come together as one in any way possible, and how quickly we alienate, isolate and discriminate each other thinking of only the one which is self.
So I invite you to not only see the bad, not only cave to the panic, but search for where you can innovate compassion and your humanity when not only responding to moment but in the creation of them.
Crisis shouldn’t be our only motive.
Panic shouldn’t be our only catalyst.
Our degrees of separation has never been so clear.
I invite you to become more intimate with life, deep and personable, seeking and exploring, healing and connecting, feeling and envisioning, leaping bounds over boundaries, not succumbing to or contently more comfortable in its paradigms and limitations.
Don’t just go with the flow.
Don’t just stoop to the pattern.
Be a trailblazer, spend time.
I invite you to listen more; we have so many time saving devices that do nothing but keep us at distance and with less time. That is a choice; priorities aren’t prioritized. Instead we try to fit all things in the need and must category.
And in doing so, we miss our mark, we look over the detail and we fall short.
More can be done with less if you weave the least impactful from the most.
Less is more sometimes.
Listen.
Hear.
Connect.
Envision.
Impact.
And then empower.
Both self and others.
Short cuts succeed most at cutting effort short and therefore achieving less than potential.
Right now, lives are being lost and lives are being changed forever.

Not only those out there providing for their families, but also those in here who were on the way to getting that chance to contribute to their families and start over.
But this is where we are.
And this will end.
Like most things,
so the question is,
who will you be when the smoke clears,
and the ashes take flight in the wind
and the rubble remains-
Waiting for someone to see it for more than broken,
but something ready to be used for a greater good,
re-imagined,
and therefore
rebuilt even greater than before.
Who are you now?
Because the next moment is waiting for you.
Alexander Pike said, “What we do for ourselves dies with us, what we do for others and the world remains and is immortal”