The New World

I remember when I read it on the news for the first time. I was filled with dread because it was at that moment I knew I was just infected along with the entire world. There was no escaping the mainstream news, this would be their new money maker for years to come. Even though there were less than 50 people infected worldwide, I could feel the world I knew my whole life taking its final breath before it was gone forever, the new world taking spawn from its corpse.

I remember watching the numbers rise as I waited for the world to go into wartime mode. Nobody seemed prepared when everything finally shut down because of the new disease, but I had been expecting this day to come for months. It was like a sigh of relief when it happened, I could finally focus on rooting myself in the new world. I felt as if the old world had devoured my sense of what is real, what is important, and how to be free. I dedicated my life to growing with the new world, before I would be consumed by it once again.

For the longest time, I did whatever I could to leave the house. Sadness always plagued me when I was alone with my thoughts for too long. For whatever reason, I no longer had that fear once the option to leave my house was taken away. There was work to be done, in the physical and spiritual world.

I terraformed my backyard after it was damaged by a tree that was cut down the year before. Massive logs that could fit three of me inside of littered the land, sawdust shadowing any vegetation from the nutrients their ruler, the sun, could provide. One by one, I lifted each log and created a stack of lumber so big and sturdy, I felt the urge to sit on top like a little kid.

I spent days cleaning up the sawdust that was deeply embedded in the soil. As spring brought plenty of rain and moisture, the shaved wood created a paste like substance that was impossible to clean up. I gathered what I could into paper bags, and when I finally cleared up the land, it wasn’t a pretty sight. There were holes and divots from the weight of the logs being pressed into the earth by a season of snowfall.

I took it upon myself to spend the following weeks digging up half my backyard, putting the desert type sand the sawdust had created deep into the ground, swapping it with rich, dark soil filled with worms and vegetation from a foot below the surface. I then spent a day leveling out the land, and sprinkled grass seed on top, making my property look like it was littered with sesame seeds.

While I watered my lawn daily and waited for it to sprout, I decided it was time to do some growing internally. I began to workout daily, even if it felt like it would make my stomach feel like it was in my throat some days. I would eat three times the amount of calories I would burn from exercising, as it was necessary to fight my speedy metabolism from devouring my progress of growing muscle fibres.

I was driven by finding inner peace, nirvana, enlightenment. My friend sent me a video of a monk doing a seminar one night, which was my introduction to meditation. I practiced along with him and with time I was able to abandon my ego and become pure awareness. I could feel the warmth of the energy in my body, and was present enough to focus the energy wherever I wanted. There was so much energy I discovered within, it felt like it was circulating my body, like something I could physically touch.

I was quickly growing physically, spiritually, and literally. I watched my body transform in the mirror as weeks turned into months. I was at peace with almost every second of every day. My lawn had blossomed from a wasteland into rich dark green grass. I would pet the sprouts and talk to them like they were my children. I loved what I had created even if it was so simple.

I didn’t feel like I had been infected, or enslaved, or like the world was ending. Without being distracted by friends, school, media, politics, internet, I was free as a bird. I had the strength, power, and tools I needed to live happily. I had successfully grounded myself, who once seemed out of control beyond saving in the old world. The disease wasn’t here to ruin life as I knew it, or make it a misery. COVID-19 showed me the beauty of being alive.