The Calm

Six months after the isolation began, the nation received the long-awaited message: You may return to your normal lives. Well, normal before the awakening – before we realized just how fragile our existence is. The most intelligent species on the planet brought to its knees by something that’s invisible to the naked eye. That’s perspective. Being confined to our homes, making small talk through apartment doors with the deliverers of our sustenance – perspective.

When the news of our salvation came, we rushed to the streets. I approached my street with a goal: to hug someone, anyone. You don’t appreciate the importance of a hug until hugging becomes outlawed. Cheers, laughter, and hugs were shared by a sea of people. It wasn’t the rapture, but we were caught up with something else – appreciation. Immense appreciation for all that we’d been taking for granted.

But our merriment was disrupted by a gentle quake of the earth. Our joy turned to dread within an instant; months of uncertainty had made us hyper-vigilant. Fear stained the faces of all that I could see; my concern was reflected as if I was in the middle of an apocalyptic house of mirrors. I wondered what other cruelty mother nature had the audacity to bestow upon us. My thought was interrupted by an utterance. For a moment, I considered the possibility that my mind had become cracked during the isolation period until I realized that everyone was on a search with their ears.

I tried to recall the predictions for the end of days because surely this was it – “The End”. Well, maybe not the end, but the next phase of the sorting. I looked to the eastern sky and listened for the sounds of the angels crying, “Holy! Holy!” I felt the ground rumble again beneath my feet. The rumble was accompanied by a message from the belly of the earth:

I’m sorry. I needed to recover so that I can continue to nourish, nurture, and heal you. I was getting too sick. My forests were dying, my seas were polluted, my air had become poison to you. I needed you away for a little while. I needed to begin the purification process so that I can continue to be your home. I am happy to see you out and about and enjoying me again. You bruise me continually, but the love you share amongst yourselves warms my core.

That’s when we realized that if we didn’t change, it would happen again.