COVID-19: What is the world trying to tell us?

It seems to me as if the world is on pause, and the only way of moving forward is to look backward. This statement contradicts everything we have learned. The key to life is to never look into the past and overcome all struggles by moving ahead. The only difference here is that what makes “moving forward” a success is one’s level of awareness and reaction to things. People divide into two groups: The ones who notice the signs before the storm hits and the ones who wait for it to hit. They say: You have to fall hard to learn your lesson well — life-taught lessons never come easy. If we are to take this philosophy and use it to reflect on the current situation in which we are living, would it make sense?

For a moment, hypothetically speaking, I felt like I had a one-on-one session with the universe. The truth is, I was going through a self-reflection session, more like a metaphor. I felt like the universe had so much to say; so much that it forced everyone to be silent and listen. Across all these years, we (there will be a lot of generalizations ahead) have developed a habit of taking everything for granted except for specific situations that force us to remember how life is not to be taken for granted. Still, yet again, we get driven back. As they say: Old habits die hard. Take death as an example; death is the most subjective reminder that life is worth it, but sadly, we find ourselves back in the loop as soon as life goes back to normal.

Let us, for a moment, evaluate everything that has happened in the past ten to 15 years. Starting from wars to poverty to pollution to injustice, we would be much closer to finding a rational answer to why this is happening.

The level of distrust across the globe is forcing us today to reconsider the quality of the life that we are living. The psychology of taking things for granted interconnects with the level of destruction.

I would want us to consider the situation that we are in as human beings with specific characteristics, and let us imagine the following: A reckless, impatient, rebellious, angry person who never listens to advice, never picks up on signs, repeats the same mistake twice and thrice, and always finds someone to blame — until that person is faced with an incident where the only way out is to take ownership of things and restructure, reprogram and rewire his life and perspectives. Does this sound familiar? If the answer is yes, then you have connected the dots. If it is no, I am sorry to tell you that “we” are that person.

I have repeatedly asked myself: What is the universe trying to tell us? From my perspective, it is trying to tell us to first drop everything that we are doing, take a deep breath and then start to evaluate the quality of life we are living. If every individual considers this exercise and we work collectively into making the world a better, healthier and more humane place, maybe by then it will be the last time we quarantine.

Lastly, let us take this as a golden opportunity to spend more quality time with family, reassess our health, invest more in self-development and be extremely grateful for all the efforts of the government to ensure our safety.

• Nada Al-Tuwaijri is a senior account manager at Edelman.