As many commentators have pointed out, we’ve reached a crossroads as a species. Our frenzied commitment to material “progress” at the expense of the natural world has threatened us with imminent extinction. If we choose to return to the old normal, pouring CO2 and methane into the atmosphere at unsustainable levels, the end result is indisputable. Even though we may lose thousands if not millions of species in the process, including our own, the planet itself will reestablish equilibrium in the longterm, as it has been doing for billions of years, and continue on its inexorable way without us.

Alternatively, we have the option of learning from this period of inactivity—when the skies have cleared, wild animals have returned to cities and waterways, and many of us have relearned the virtues of sitting still, doing nothing, and connecting with the simplicity of life as it is—and drastically changing our ways. Some nations are considering regulating and restricting air travel to limit the enormous pollution it generates, and some cities are already taking advantage of the ban on unnecessary vehicular traffic to turn major thoroughfares into bicycle and pedestrian only.

As a spiritual teacher, it seems to me that the key to this transformation of our way of being in the world to one that is more attuned to the environment and to the natural rhythms of life lies in our capacity for wonder and gratitude. In our headlong dedication to economic growth at all costs—which on an individual level often translates as an endless struggle to force reality to bend to our will—we cut ourselves off from our body’s instinctual alignment with the flow of life and close our hearts to the beauty inside and around us. In our anxiety to survive in what may often seem like a competitive and unsupportive world, we fail to appreciate the preciousness of each moment and sacrifice our happiness to maximize the short-term material benefit for the illusory small self.

The alternative is to fall into wonder—and allow the overwhelming beauty and richness of what is to crack our hearts open, revealing the gratitude and appreciation at its core. Gratitude is the emotion that naturally arises when we no longer experience ourselves to be separate from life but instead realize, in the depths of our being, that this life is a gift freely given, arising unbidden out of the sacred mystery, and we are just one of the myriad, incomparable ways that the mystery expresses itself in form. 

The current pandemic has given us the opportunity to let go of our fixation on the future, our perpetual preoccupation with doing, getting, accomplishing, improving—even at a so-called spiritual level—and fall into wonder. Perhaps you’ve experienced a new capacity for wonder in the past few months as you’ve listened more closely to the sounds of the birds, spent more time enjoying the flowers in the garden, attuned more closely to the words of your loved ones, or just rested in silence enjoying the inexpressible. Ultimately this is the essence of awakening—to fall out of time and space and into the timeless and undivided. 

The question now is: Will we be able to drink deeply enough of wonder and gratitude to change our ways?