Right now the world is in crisis.
As I sit and write this the news blares incessantly of viruses and death. Of the need to isolate yourself. Of businesses forced to close. Of families being kept apart. Of prisoners being released from prison. Of the stock market crashing. Of people losing their jobs. Of a world gone mad.
A virus has struck the planet. One that is highly contagious and dangerous to anyone with a compromised immune system and an aged body. It attacks anyone. It has no boundaries, knows no race or gender or age. It travels from person to person in planes, at concerts, on subways, at meetings. Anywhere people congregate in big groups. Anywhere a sneeze or a cough can reach a person next to you. It doesn’t kill everyone it meets, but any one can catch it. For most it is just a flu. For the really healthy it can last only 3 days. It can be so benign that the person may not be identified as having it. For others it can be a death sentence.
People are scared and everyday as we adapt to the new ‘normal’ another announcement is made to deepen our fears. Gun sales have gone up in anticipation of having to keep yourself safe by force. In some places police are knocking on doors asking visitors to small towns to vacate asap.
My heart is heavy. I am not afraid. I find myself angry at how fearful they want us to be. Of course I want no one to suffer. I am not a heartless or selfish person. Still I do believe that ongoing fear eventually becomes something else. Our human systems can not handle the effects of fear to our psyche and our bodies for very long. Eventually we will become depressed and lethargic, giving up on the future. Or angry and reckless, disregarding all protocols…throwing the baby out with the bath water. Both scenarios in the end would create more opportunity for carelessness and a lack
of responsible actions. I can even sense my own irritation mounting. How long can my soul take this? How long can I maintain before loosing it? Especially here in the grand USA…freedom is everything to us. It’s part of our culture and our heritage. We won’t stand for confinement for long.
And yet…
While all this is happening, throughout the world we can see something under the surface. Some might call this a byproduct, others part of a climate change agenda, others that God is taking over, and others still some kind of conspiracy. We are seeing EPA numbers decrease as the skies become clear of exhausts from cars, planes and train. We see our rivers and canals getting clean and the planet cooling down instead of burning with fever. Some have said that this virus is the answer to a shift in our position about the planet herself. This is Her way of telling us to stop.
Some would say it’s causing us to pause. To really evaluate what is important to us. Is it money, which can not buy you safety? Is it a big house, where now you spend your days alone in more space than you can use? Is it fame, which doesn’t guarantee your immunity? Is it vacations, which still don’t alleviate your stress? Is it work, which
doesn’t insure your happiness? These are the questions we now have time to think about. That give our mind something to do while we stay, day in and day out, in our homes.
What if…this is the invitation…
People are finding ways to adapt their jobs. Finding ways to make money enough to pay their bills. Finding ways to assist others who are vulnerable. Finding new ways to date. New ways to shop. New ways to use all the food in their pantries.
More people are walking instead of driving. People are meeting on line instead of in coffee shops. We are spending more time with family rather than socializing at happy hour. We have the time to pick up a new hobby or interest like playing the guitar. More time to read that book that’s been sitting on our bed stand for months. More
time to work in the garden. To paint a picture. To build that shelf. To write a letter to a friend we haven’t connected to in years.
We are moving slower because there is no rush when there’s no where to go. We are getting more present, dreaming more, resting our bodies, taking time to cook real food and eat our meals slow enough to taste it.
People are moving their bodies not because someone has told them they have to go to the gym and workout..but because it feels good to move. People are singing even if there’s no one listening. People are finding ways to laugh, to lighten up, to experience joy. People are spending time in prayer talking to their version of God and
meditating daily to hear that inner guidance speak to them. This is the new normal.
We have no idea how long this will be are daily experience.
How long it will be before we can once again congregate, party, socialize. We have no idea what the financial impact will be on us collectively or individually. We have no idea if we will contract this virus, or a loved one will, or that we could be a carrier and spread it to others. We are collectively in the Great Mystery…in the Unknown…in the midst of a
dark night of our universal soul.
And though we are isolated…we are not alone.
We are more connected to each other, to other states, other countries, than we have ever been before. Cooperation and collaboration are part of the answer to our coming out of this universal experience with grace and with a higher level of thinking, feeling, and being.
I see this as the great opportunity to shift into a greater, broader, more caring, more responsible version of ourselves. Opportunities like this don’t come along often. I know for myself, my greatest growth, my greatest understanding and healing of me, came out of my greatest pain. The economic collapse of 2008 wasn’t enough to do this for us. A world war would have done it, but we are far more conscious than to let that happen.
On a deep level…perhaps this is the answer to what the planet needs, what we need, and what our souls yearn for.
Remember…be kind to yourself…
