One of the benefits of the burden of the coronavirus is that it is waking us up. Some of the things that we used to worry and fret about now seem foolish in the face of a real attack. It’s making us appreciate life in a way we didn’t before. It’s making us appreciate faith in a way we didn’t before. Some people are upset that they can’t go to a mosque, but before when they could go, they didn’t bother. Some of the people that are complaining about mosques being closed were never regular mosque goers anyway. Sometimes we don’t appreciate something until it is pulled back from us, when it is pulled back from us, we have a deeper appreciation. The virus is waking people up to the fact they can bring a mosque experience to their homes, it’s an opportunity to pray with your children at home.
I have been thinking about my nephews a lot and wondering what their minds make of the self-isolation and studying from home. I know they miss their friends a lot. I think it’s a great opportunity to prepare children for the real world, the corona virus is a great teaching opportunity for our children to learn obedience, structure, boundaries and order. It’s a chance for our children to learn about life, how sometimes things come out of nowhere, they can change all our plans, rearrange all our lives, but our adaptability skills have to be so strong that we can handle that change. Kids, I know you thought you were going on vacation this summer, but now we are staying home for a staycation. So let’s take the sheets off the bed and make a tent, lets learn how to make use of what we have. This change is giving us an opportunity to get creative. We need to look at this as an opportunity for our children, not an opposition. If we don’t teach them these valuable lessons, when they get out into the real world, they won’t know how to handle them.
This virus has shown the children we have to obey laws, we have to operate within boundaries, we have to respect leadership, so many more life lessons. One of the most important lessons they are learning is to be happy in confinement, that they don’t need people and things to make them happy, they can create their own happiness.
Change is a basic law of nature, there is nothing we can do to stop it. Change affects individuals in different ways, but it’s how we react to it that determines the outcome. It reminds me of the Charles Darwin quote: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
The author is a consultant and coach. Instagram handle: @miss_shefa, Website: missshefa.com
Shefa Ali
