by Helen Heath OAM, executive officer of the Interfaith Network of the City of Greater Dandenong
Today, April 12, marks the United Nations International Day of Human Space Flight, the day when the first human to journey into outer space completed an orbit of the earth.
This day, if you accept all offerings on the internet, is also National Deskfast Day (desk+breakfast), National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day, World Hamster Day, National Liquorice Day, Walk On The Wild Side Day, National Equal Pay Day, International Be Kind To Lawyers Day (really!), Big Wind Day, National Education And Sharing Day, and National D.E.A.R. Day (Drop Everything And Read).
Tempted, but overwhelmed I am at a loss to decide which one!
So, I do not choose.
And in the space of recent times, I find myself in the interim – the time between two particular periods or events.
A time between Covid and not-quite post Covid, the interim supposedly being a fixed time period that lasts until something specific ends.
But! There has been no let-up of Covid which leaves a dragging interval of filling-in, of making-do, of stopgap, of meaning-less time.
This foggy feeling of an altered reality so different from what has been business-as-usual, is hard to shake and each day drifts into the next – before you know it is rubbish bin night again.
Lacking context and purpose, unable to transition from one stage (Covid) to the next (post-Covid) and stuck somewhere in the middle, creates difficulty in decision making (do I stay at home, or do I go out?) and in engaging with the usual everyday meaning-making rituals (will I join with friends in community or not?).
It leaves us bewildered and lost in our own space.
Nancy Levin has said: “Honour the space between no longer and not yet”.
Do we hunker down or do we step through this threshold with a leap of faith, letting go of the nostalgia of and longing for the past, to intentionally seize the unknown – like that first human to journey into outer space did in order to complete an orbit of the earth?
Do we “out of the fear of the unknown, prefer suffering that is familiar” as Thich Nhat Hanh has said, or do we, in faith, seize the mystery of the unknown to forge a new way of being?
It must have taken enormous courage and faith for the first human in space, to jettison into the unknown, no matter how much knowledge, science and support was in place behind that pioneering event.
As a yellow balloon released into thin air, may we all find the freedom in letting go of the need to be certain of things ahead and work together to shape a new space for ourselves and our communities.
– Message of Hope is compiled by the Interfaith Network of the City of Greater Dandenong. Details on its activities, tours and volunteering opportunities, email executive@interfaithnetwork.org.au
