CThe global human body is sickened by the virus and we need individual and community approaches to process its impact. As it spreads across the world it creates disruption, fear, anxiety and loss. When we experience these feelings in ourselves and see them in others we naturally respond with a sense of dread, paralysis and hopelessness. The pandemic crisis forces us to take distance from each other and shuts whole sectors of our communities down. We are immobilized to protect ourselves and each other and compelled to take stock of who we are as individuals, families and communities. The paralysis may be an invitation to delve into the inner silence of our souls. The fear of death may be a door to let go of our ordinary way of going about our lives and answer the call for a profound change and transformation. We are being banished into distancing and solitude, an exile from our normal lives. We are cut off from the land that we love and deported into a foreign world.
We instinctively react by problem solving, by educating ourselves about the danger and looking for answers and solutions that will allow us to return to the familiar world. We develop new knowledge and skills, new treatments and vaccines we hope will allow us back into life as we know it.
The global disease is not unlike an individual health crisis or emergency. Many of us have not had the privilege of health and normalcy. While being more vulnerable to this new communal health crisis, we also understand the power of change. Illness and disease transform us, they expel us from the illusion of normality and thrust us into an awareness of uncertainty and constant change. Nothing is at it used to be. The disruption, pain and discomfort, the loss of safety and wellness brings us to our limits, the borders into the unknown. As a community, the virus crisis, the disturbance and despair of losing a job, our health, and a certain future force us into similar new frontiers.
For all of us individually and communally, the new journey starts with becoming still, contemplating who we are, our values, hopes and aspirations. We are refugees from the land of safety and certainty that are internally and outwardly displaced and deported into the land of uncertainty and ambiguity. Outer resources and coping skills need to be augmented by inner strength and powers. To deal with the fear, loss and grief we are asked to tap into our inner resilience.
Yesterday, I participated in an online service of my local church to find some solace and comfort in the beautiful voices and music of the rudimentary choir, five vocalists standing six feet apart. The pastor, speaking to empty pews, gave a deeply moving sermon drawn from a passage of the old testament. In it, the prophet Ezekiel is led into a dry valley full of bones. The spirit shows him that for becoming embodied and alive they need inspiration from consciousness and awareness.
In stillness we can rekindle our inner awareness and allow ourselves to be changed by the disturbing powers of loss and grief. In the wastelands and deserts of dreading death we can listen to our bones, our essence, and revive our inner selves. In isolation, when we are paralyzed by anxiety and sadness the gifts of awareness remain open and they allow us to start moving again in new directions.