How Will You Be Here?

Jul 19

This passage of time has thrown most of us for a loop. This is Week 4 of our shelter in place order and, aside from home schooling and the projects I’ve been working on, the calendars are blank, there are no deadlines and it’s easy to lose track of the days. This is especially true on Saturday, which feels an awful lot like Friday...and like Tuesday for that matter.

But the slow and steadiness of this new life pace has such potential for new insights and creative expression. It kicks up momentum for change and asks us to mend what’s been broken for a long time; systems and structures built on injustice, a dishonoring of our natural resources, our collective jonesing for more and more stuff.

We have a tremendous opportunity to participate in this movement of reconditioning, re-patterning and rebuilding.

So how will we spend this strange new passage of time? Will we swipe and scroll, raising our fist at the fear-laden reports cleverly disguised as “news”? Will we wish things were back to normal or cling to an expectation this will all be over soon? Will we lose sleep wondering and worrying? Who will we turn to when we want answers and solutions; rationale for what’s happened and directions to what’s coming next?

The fact is: we just don’t know. No one does. Not the doctors on the front line or the reporters at the White House. Not the lawmakers or the scientists or the educators. Not our grandparents who remember the Spanish Flu or our church pastor and the scripture she shares.

And sure, that unknowing can breed fear and anxiety. We are a species that thrives on answers and perceived certainty to make life comfortable. It’s how we’re cognitively wired, and that’s okay.

But there are other ways to spend this time too, that support our evolution rather than our stagnation. New rituals to foster dialogue with our community, our creative genius or with spirit. Time to read, paint, dance, write, journal, meditate, sketch, film, make the next hilarious virus meme! Space to reach out and connect with friends across the world, or the neighbor two doors down. Really be with our kids. See and listen with intent, because it’s what we have right now. At this very moment.

This is a worldwide pandemic, yes. It is also a global movement to collectively shift and unfold with curiosity, kindness and a hint of faith. To participate.