‘Good things come to good people,’ she said one evening when we were all out for a drink, long before Corona even set in. I disagreed. And so does Corona.

Good things come to good people. It is a sentence I hear so often, yet I do not always believe it. Not because I don’t belief in karma, but because we all know good people to whom bad things come as well.

Good and bad things come to good and bad people, but the difference is that some people are able to bend the bad things into good ones. They manage to see obstacles as opportunities; to let setbacks not set them back; and let a road blockade not derail them.

Obstacle vs Opportunity

Corona did not make a division between good and bad people; rather, it made a division between the people who see the obstacle, and those who see the opportunity.

Opening Hearts

All over the world restaurants and bars are closed; most of them went on unemployment, some went bankrupted; but among them some restaurants discovered an opportunity. Rather than closing the doors, they opened their kitchens to produce takeaway meals.

They might make less profit than in non-Corona times, but what they surely win is people’s hearts. Not only of their employees who still have some kind of job, or just the hope that their business will survive. As well as the hearts’ of their customers, who in the past maybe never have eaten with them, but surely will in the future.

Some businesses closed the doors, but not the mind. They started maintenance works, or rethinking the business model; looking for the future to come; an attitude of hope and inspiration, that inspires others around them as much as theirselves.

These businesses took the obstacle as an opportunity.

Growing Together

Many families are now at home all together. It does require a lot of energy to take care of children all the time, especially when combined with working from home. Being a parent is a full-time job, therefore when parents aren’t taking care of their children, they will find someone to do it for them, from the school over the kindergarten, from the nanny to the babysit. Children are not an object you can switch off; they are a growing creature that requires care and love 24/7.

Some families take pleasure in getting to know each other again, in watching their children grow up, in spending more time with them. They look actively for activities to do adapted to their circumstances, from walking outside to drawing inside, from reading books to cooking together. It is not easy, and requires a lot of planning, inspiration and patience, but in the end of the day; they might be satisfied because they have chosen to consider it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

Killing Time

Many people became unemployed, losing the major block in their daily schedule. Some people will use this time to get some things done such as gardening, reading, writing, picking-up an old hobby, dedicating more times to children, partner, or housemates, virtual social life, or whatever they can invent to spend their day meaningful to them.

On the other hand, some people might just be counting the hours and days to pass by, until we all return to ‘normal’, whatever that might be. They might wake up with a vain feeling of ‘yet another day in lockdown’, going to bed with an unsatisfied feeling of ‘yet another day in lockdown’.

The days pass by slowly, while they don’t realise these days or days of their life as well. The world might be put on hold, but life hasn’t. It is a choice not to be living these days. And life does not mean going outside and work, but it means being conscious and grateful for the time on earth you have, and not unconsciously waiting for it to pass by.

The first consider Covid-19 as an opportunity, while the latter watch it as an obstacle.

These Boots are Made for Walking

Obviously, it is not easy to consider obstacles as opportunities; some are even as gigantic that you might not see it straight away. It is not a matter of shaming and blaming if one does not see the opportunity in a certain obstacle. Moreover, you don’t have to look for it because the outer world asks it; but because your inner world needs it.

One’s happiness, health, and quality of life does depend on the ability to put events in perspective, and turn obstacles into opportunities, no matter how big and unfair they are. Good does not always comes to good people; but good to you if you can see the light in the dark, turn the obstacle into an opportunity, and take control over the little you can control.

By far this will be the easy way to walk, but it is the only way we have, so we better make the best of it. Not because we are good or bad, but because we can take control over the little, we have control over, which is how we see the things around us, how we give meaning to it, how we handle the obstacles that come our way.

Whatever comes your way, it is up to you what you do with it. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it is unfair, and sometimes it is too much. That is ok. Looking for the opportunity in the obstacle won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

This article is part of the series of Hope in Times of Corona. Read

• how this times of self-isolation should not mean loneliness,
• how you can contribute to this battle, 
• how gratitude lights up the dark,  
• how united we will stand strong
• on the most util strategy in awake of a crisis 
• how I got blown of my feet as well, but caught by many caring hands, 
• how being calm can get us through the storm.
• about Love in Times of Corona
• how to discover your own talents 
• why we need stories to hold on to 
• how you can be creative and innovative.
• how to spend your mot valuable assets in times of Corona.
• how to listen to the sound of silence. 
• How breate taking Corona really is.
• discover the other freedoms Corona has shown us, 
• about the new-born freedom Corona gave us.
• about another way to exceed your personal bubble.
• about the position of nature in this entire story
• about nature bouncing back
• about the crucial choice between resilience and resistance
• about the game to play
• about star gazing in dark times
• About looking for Meaning
• about what Easter and Corona have in Common
• About the Shark and the Turtle
• About the Irony of Distance
• Why to Hold on
• Fake News
• about The Big Unknown we live at
• about Feeling Alive

Or wait until tomorrow, when I’ll shine another light on yet another positive corner of this dark times.