Well, these are quite the times, aren’t they.
Lots of stuff happening on the inside — fears, worries. And on the outside — closures, cancellations, postponements.
There is pain, let’s be clear. I tell myself that there will be more. Infections are spreading. The math is rather stunning.
There is need, let’s be clear on this also, to be calm. This is something that many of us know. Being calm (yet not blind denying) can also be infectious, with stunning math.
“Social distancing” is recommended approach. Yes. As is true with other forms of flu and cold, it’s best not to share. That’s what health officials and infectious disease experts tell us. So, we do our best. Wash hands.
I want to name as additional recommendation how important it is, in these times, to spike together kindness, consciousness, and perseverance. “Community” isn’t newly important. It’s always mattered. How we express it might be different, but I want to stand for each of these — kindness, consciousness, perseverance — as inner commitments and attitudes.
This isn’t a zombie apocalypse. I suppose I don’t know that for sure. But I’ll guess that it isn’t likely.
What’s being revealed, in this times, I would suggest, is a dynamic of “everything is connected to everything.” It can rather fry the circuitry of our brains, our plans, our routines to be so “interrupted.”
Some people are dying. Yes. There are particular demographics of people that are most vulnerable. Yes. Lives are being changed. Yes. Some people are really confronting fear and worry. Yes. And pain. Yes.
Perhaps one of the things that will be birthed is in all of this is a different relationship with “normal.” Perhaps — and I’m suggesting this is a good thing — more of us will embrace inherent uncertainties and unknowns, that will grow us into a kinder people together.
“Everything is connected to everything” isn’t new. We humans are just seeing it in a unique way, and seeing it everywhere on news programs and in social media, whether named that way or not.
“Inherent vulnerability” isn’t new either. We humans are seeing it in a rather robust way, in these times.
Friends, “perseverance” is also not new. These times call for us to remember what we know, to not increase heroic denial, but rather to increase honesty and good listening — with ourselves and with others.
Prevention and “flattening the curve” are real. Because people are dying. People are getting sick.
I want to continue to invite in myself and with others, some of the most important and needed medicine in these times, coming to relationship with our own vulnerabilities. It’s waking to some of our denial patterns. It’s expanding our choices of response beyond numbing and fear. It’s growing. And turning to one another, with other people, who are also trying to figure that out. It’s not perfection to demand of each other, in these times. It’s willingness to approach the new, and perhaps, remember it as old.
There is a teacher here. It just might be a very different teacher than we thought. There is learning here. It just might be different than we thought it would be. There is humanity growing.
Here’s a few CoVid resources that I’ve particularly appreciated.
The Whidbey Institute’s (a retreat center) initial announcement — I loved their offering of practicality, and a call to “generous response.”
Tomas Pueyo’s Medium article (thanks Amanda Fenton for sharing), Why You Must Act Now — lots of projections and statistical conjecture that names the truth and robustness of living systems.
From GirlTrek (thanks Quanita Roberson for sharing) — this naming that there are people among us that have persevered before, and there are grandmothers that remind us of who we are.
This BBC article, 11 Questions Answered — Because I want to be informed enough, fierce enough, and discerning enough to know when to seek help, and when to take care of self.