Staying in Our "Genius Lane"

COVID-19 has completely knocked me for a six emotionally as my nursing and medical colleagues around the world get sick and some die in the course of doing their job. At times over the past few months, this has brought me to my knees. The most difficult part has been my sense of hopelessness as it is such a tsunami of need and despair around the world. While we are relatively cocooned here in Australia, it's not over by any stretch of the imagination. How do I stay focussed on what I do best to make small positive changes?

A number of weeks ago I was sitting on a friend's verandah in Brisbane in the evening having a well deserved G & T after teaching and a few days of meetings. She talked about staying in our "Genius Lane". I asked her what she meant. Here's what she said.

We are all really good at something. We have unique gifts that we can use to contribute to society and we should be "sharing the sh#!" out of those gifts. Those gifts don't have to be saving the world. We are responsible for doing what we do well and to keep on doing just that. When we are doing that, there is a rhythm and we are in the flow of love and not fear.

So your "Genius Lane" maybe your infinite patience teaching your 11-year-old son how to make honeycomb as part of a homeschooling "science experiment", it may be being deployed from your comfortable public service policy job to a call centre at Centrelink and being that reassuring voice for one of the million people who have been on hold for hours wondering if they can get JobSeeker, it may be working on the frontline in a hospital ICU or it may be reaching out to the lonely and isolated friends and family in your network.

Whatever your "Genius Lane" is, please do it with love and know that every tiny kind and good thing we do counts.

Don't be overwhelmed, just be a little bit of genius.