Forward From Here: spiritual vision in pandemic times

by Sarah Beth Hunt

This past year has been a really dark time. The Covid pandemic has changed all of our lives. It has brought loss and innumerable challenges we never expected to face. And it has also illuminated aspects of our lives we hadn't noticed or had put on the back-burner because of our busy schedule. In those first months of the pandemic, we all struggled with the sudden day-to-day changes. Now, we are also starting to see the possibilities of alchemy in our lives…of using what has emerged under these stark and difficult conditions to transform our individual experience, our society, and our relationship to the planet. We have time now to ask ourselves — what do we really miss about our old life and what do we, surprisingly, not miss? What new patterns have emerged within our working life, our family dynamics and wider friendship circles etc. that we would have never expected? What changes that were originally forced upon us would we now choose to keep? How can we use the things we’ve learned about ourselves, our friends, our communities and incorporate them into a new life? Ultimately — how do we create and live and love forward from here? This question is as much about not going backwards — back to our old life and old habitual patterns that were causing us so much stress and anxiety, as well as damage to the natural world, while inequality and discrimination persisted in entrenched systemic forms. Because let’s face it, our old “normal”, the one we keep mentally wishing we could “get back to” was far from perfect. In truth, it wasn’t really working for most of us. Meditation and mindfulness teaches us to use our experiences, even those that are painful and not of our choosing, to transform our inner lives. Ironically it is often the difficult moments that teach us the most and help us grow in wisdom and compassion. Forward From Here is an exploration of how we might use our experiences, including those that are really hard and uncertain and uncomfortable, as opportunities for greater inner understanding, growth and transformation. This book does not contain an answer. Instead it is my own exploration of the question of how I can go forward from here with greater insight, self-kindness, compassion and wise action. I hope it will also be a part of your journey with this question. In many ways, I think our willingness to journey with this question IS the answer. It is part of the process of reawakening to the aspects of ourselves we have too often neglected. Of shining a light on areas of our life we stopped looking at because we were too busy. Of becoming curious again about what is possible.

92 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 12, 2020

About the author

Sarah Beth Hunt grew up in the tropics of south Florida. She has taken trains along the mountains to Manchu Pichu, through the tea plantations of Sri Lanka, across the hot deserts of Rajasthan, India, and to as many European cities as she could manage. She now finds herself in Leamington Spa, England, where she lives with her husband and two small children and continues to write stories.

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Reviews

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Sarah in all her incarnations, from podcast to ebook. This is a wonderful morning read to start the day in a reflective headspace.