Yesterday, Massachusetts went into a formal ‘lockdown’. It’s hard to know how to feel during a time like this. Each hour, it seems, a new development is on the news. Reality is changing by the minute. While I have already been physically distancing for the past week, the situation all of a sudden feels a bit more real.
I think it’s clear that no one really knows how to respond to this situation. Of course, fear and panic are not helpful states-of-being, but oblivion is arguably worse. No one knows what will happen. We don’t know when things will return to normal or what tomorrow, or the day after, will look like.
But what harm is there in being conservative? In staying home, if you can. Try a new recipe, find a new hobby, binge watch Netflix. Do all of the things we haven’t had the time for as a society because we are all so busy. Declutter, clean, meditate, exercise, sleep in late, read all of the books on your wishlist. Hell, learn a new language if you want.
Maybe it’s so easy for me to talk about these things because I am coming from a place of privilege. I recognize that I don’t have family in the healthcare industry that I am constantly worried about, nor do I fear the consequences of, potentially, many weeks unpaid from work. I am lucky. But I think that’s all the more reason why I should stay home, because countless others cannot.
There is so much power in the way we view a situation. We can choose to accept the current state of affairs or we can choose to resist them. As resistance has never served me well, I choose to spend my time embracing the slow down, even if it’s not ideal. I will call family more, stay up late and shut off my alarm. I will eat slower and move my body. I will do all that I am able, because while we might not have the power to choose, on a large scale, what we can and cannot do right now, we can always choose how we react to our current circumstances.
Since being home, I have been flooded with emotions. I’m overwhelmed by the way in which people are coming together. There are countless live online workouts and virtual classrooms. There’s been authors reading stories, people sewing masks, friends making friends dinner and leaving it on their doorstep. I am always amazed by the beauty that comes out of hardships. Maybe it’s the uncertainty that has helped us realize we are not all that different from one another. We are all susceptible to disease. We all have loved ones we want to protect and jobs we fear losing. We all feel pain and anxiety and love and happiness. We are all human and we are all in uncharted territory. And it seems that in the darkest of moments, humanity always has a way of shining its light. Let’s all stay together in this strikingly uncertain time and be there for one another.
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
XO