New time zones
When you fly across several time zones over the course of a few hours, you are moving faster than your body’s internal clock can adjust. Your body is out of sync with the time at your new destination. You have trouble settling, trouble feeling rested. Your circadian rhythms are out of whack.
This is jet lag.
This moment feels like a metaphorical state of jet lag.
Racial reckoning, global pandemic, and long-held systems being held up to the light and re-examined.
Humanity is travelling somewhere new, to an unfamiliar time zone.
It’s hard to sleep.
Hard to stay awake.
Our internal clocks are shifting and calling time on the old.
We’re searching for a new rhythm.
In this new time zone, it is our responsibility to fight sleep, to keep our eyes open, to acclimatize, to teach our bodies and hearts how to exist in this new space.
What does it look and feel like for you in this time zone? What's your version of "staying awake"? Is it poring into anti-racism and allyship literature? Is it protesting? Is it healing and connecting? Is it using your voice?
Whatever your role is in this moment, be gentle with yourself. Remember to breathe deeply, to connect, to set boundaries, to rest so that we don't become too tired to keep going.