Renunciation

Often I read in the spiritual masters the exhortation to renunciation of stuff as an early part of the spiritual journey.  It is attractive, the thought of simplifying my life, letting go of things that occupy so much of my time but seem to offer little in making me a better person.  But I give up little.  All seems so necessary.  But now with Covid 19, I don’t have to renounce anything.  The virus renounced it for me.  I have no job to go to or social occasions, or events to attend, those “don’t miss events,” that were highlights of my life.  All gone.  So what is my response?  I wanted my life to become simplified right?  Now I have it.  And I find myself at times longing for the “old ways.”  There is a bit of fear involved.  Fear of losing what I had, like an income.  Maybe fear is why I gave up so little in the first place.  Well, now it is gone and like it or not, I have the opportunity to examine myself in the challenge to live a simpler, less frenzied life.  If you have children at home, maybe you can think of yourselves as all being in the same classroom learning the art of being together in a simpler way.  Boredom is a challenge for a child to learn how to be self-creative and examine why they do not like being with themselves.  We all might ask one another, “If you don’t like being with yourself, why should anyone else like being with you?”  If you are bored with you why burden someone else with your boring self?