I came across a beautiful piece of writing by Emily Perl Kingsley during Mental Health Awareness Week recently, when it struck me just how poignant a comparison the piece was to what’s going on in the world right now….
We’ve all arrived in Holland when we were destined for Italy!
Allow me to explain…
It is very clear in her piece of prose that Emily is explicitly talking about the comparisons of arriving in Holland (rather than Italy) with giving birth to a child with a disability.
While at first glance, you may feel she’s wanting you to join her pity party, it’s quickly very clear that Emily is not sharing this so called ‘devasting’ story with her audience to spread doom and gloom – far from it.
Indeed, she clearly feels an immense sense of gratitude for what she has, not what she’s apparently missed out on (according to society at large), by not having a ‘normal’ child in her life.
The piece is called Welcome to Holland and you can download it here
It’s one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I’ve ever read and it got me thinking how the global pandemic of 2020 and the ensuing situation we all find ourselves in, as we begin to transition into a new normal way of working and living, is very much like arriving in Holland, when we were destined for Italy!
No, we might not be where we had hoped or planned or expected to be when we first set out our New Year goals and created our vision for 2020.
No, we hadn’t expected to head to a destination that we had no intention of journeying to this year.
No, we certainly didn’t expect to find anything other than what we set out to see and be and achieve at the start of this new decade, however….
By learning to adjust to this new situation we find ourselves in, and by starting to look for some of the new, different, just as interesting, exciting opportunities that lie before us – we can all enjoy a new journey in a different direction.
We don’t have to fester on all those things we’re missing or losing out on, because of where we’re now heading.
We can all enjoy being in Holland rather than Italy.
We can all enjoy tulips and windmills and Rembrandts, just as much as we would’ve enjoyed the Vatican and the coliseum and trips on gondolas in Venice.
Mentally adjusting to a new normal is what Emily Perl Kingsley did and jeez peeps, if she can land in Holland and still smell the roses (or should I say, the tulips) then we sure as hell can too – agreed?
You’ll see what I mean when you read Welcome to Holland – enjoy!
Best regs
Marie X
