In NZ we are back into a world of uncertainty, we have so far had minimal health impacts from COVID-19 in comparison to some other countries throughout the world however Omicron has entered our communities and the whole country has entered back into "red" setting within our COVID-19 framework.
What does "red" mean to people, especially as our kids return back to school after a great summer holiday full of freedoms. For some "red" has meant reverting back to the "lockdown" mindset, for others "red" means working with less people around and less interaction with other teams to minimise the potential impact that "Omicron" might bring.
For some industries like hospitality and tourism, it means juggling which format will be the best for keeping their business running or do they contemplate moving into another industry or reshaping their business again to continue to be resilient to COVID like pandemics or sadly for others they will be contemplating the possibility of closing their doors for the last time.
I have recently moved from an industry that has had been able to set up their businesses so they can continue to grow during these times to an industry that has felt every up and down and sideways movements of a pandemic. You can feel that there is still hope that at some point in 2022 our international borders will open and we will start to see more freedom of travel for NZers and others that wish to visit our shores. However at the same time, you can see that they are tired of asking their people to give more and more with every outbreak. You can also see the burden of a team that are also tired of reacting to the unknown that is thrown at them nearly every week or month.
You have the feeling that everyone is wanting to move on however some are feeling a level of anxiety that they have not felt before and others are putting themselves out there to get some sense of control and normality back in their lives.
What we know from Omicron is that there is a high chance that at some point most people will test positive for this variant. What impact will this have on us kiwi's when majority of us have not had COVID due to the ability for us to close down our borders and minimise the spread of previous variants. Will we once again show that for our isolation we have developed an immunity to these variants that has not been seen in other countries or that because we are generally a spread out society that the severity or impact of Omicron will be minimal? Or do we have to worry about the flip side?
All of these questions and many more create a nice juicy environment for anxiety and stress. Whether we admit to it or not, human beings are control freaks or we like to think that we have control of our lives. The reality is that we do have control however the width of that control is very localised to ourselves. What we watch, what we think, what we do, how we react to others and different situations - that is in our realm of control. Outside of that is not in our control, we cannot control what our Government does or doesn't do - yes some roles in society can do their best to influence however in the end we need to prepare and plan for the things that we can.
We can control if we are kind to others or ourselves, we can control if we decide to focus on hope rather than the doom and gloom of media/social media, we can control wearing a mask and washing our hands more regularly, we can control how many packets of toilet paper or boxes of tissues we buy, we control how we connect with people and set up good support structures for ourselves and friends/families.
For me I am cautiously ready to move on and get on with living our lives. I am cautiously optimistic that at some point we will look at the rest of the world and understand what opportunities we have created for our people as well as understand what other opportunities we need to create to get our country moving on.
Do we have the courage to change what we have always done?
"... Rain, it pours, rain, it pours
It's pouring on me
The rain it falls, rain it falls
Sowing the seeds of love and hope, love and hope
We don't have to stay, stuck in the way
Have I the courage to change?
Have I the courage to change today?..."
P!nk - Courage
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