The Great Reset

Well, the great reset is on the way. I can feel it in my bones. It’s almost September and I note the coolness already creeping into the air at night. Everyone is trying to pack whatever they can into what’s left of summer, after a year of being shut in and shut out. I would say, getting back to normal is pretty high on people’s agendas. 

I’m kind of with the Jews on the whole new year thing. I never felt the earth move on the first of January but nobody can deny the seismic shift that happens every September. Schedules fall into place, people settle in to that gentle slide toward winter. Everything starts over in September. It’s the great reset. 

Animals move with the changes in the seasons, and I feel what they seem to know. It’s innate to mankind to take in the harvest, tuck things away, and go into a time of more thinking than doing because the days are shorter and the weather colder. There is something deeply natural about this that is wonderful, restorative, and healthy. And it is long due. Just like coming out of a war, we have been disrupted for two years now. Our parents had World War Two and the Great Depression, and we had COVID. It’s mark on people and culture will be with us for a while but will also be more forgettable than we think. 

I don’t want to remember another thing I am not allowed to do, a bending of my normal patterns that fits with legislation and excited politicians. I want my life back. I want government bureaucrats to go away until I call them, and that might take awhile. 

My kids are ready too. They are at an age where a couple of years is a big part of their lived experience. There will be some adjustments that will stick. Now I know why my parents saved string and paper bags and tried to fix things rather than buy new. I get why they were always a bit careful with the cash because you cannot predict what might be around the next corner. 

In the annals of world history a patch of trouble is pretty normal and it is a wonder our generation got this far without some major disruption. It’s above all time to be grateful. Grateful for those constants that keep us sane, grateful for another kick at the can, grateful for the seasons of life that come and go so faithfully, and grateful for that nudge in spirit that tells us to let go our breath and relax just for now. 

There is that OTHER great reset they keep talking about - the conspiracy theory that may just happen yet. I know coming out of the pandemic that I don’t have much use for politicians. In every shakedown of fortune each man must find his own bearings. The answers won’t be had in governments. They think themselves visionaries who drive culture, while I am more or the opinion that human universals of hearth and home will triumph. They imagine the great reset is something they invented when in fact it is what human beings have been doing since recorded time. It’s not about them, it’s about US in ways that are more spiritual than political. Human beings must periodically put their cares in a pile, look them over and figure out what it is they lean on. I have my own anchors that are worthy and lasting, and they are the ones I return to. It’s the cyclical stuff that keeps us sane. I have faith in my God who has never abandoned or failed me, and I have faith in the ones around me who count. They know who they are. 

All I know is I am ready for the familiar changes fall will bring. The geese will fly south and I must also return to normal. Hopefully it will be a season with no major hiccups. I think everyone in the world has had enough excitement for a while and it will be good to lay back into some of those routines that give cadence to our days. It may not all be one hundred per cent normal, but I’ll settle for normal-ish. 

It’s all good. It’s not just a casual expression. This time I really mean it. I breathe in some of that fresh fall air and wonder at the seasons of man. There is a time and purpose for every thing under the Heavens it is true. We all got a close up lesson what Solomon was on about when he penned those memorable words, “The race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11)