A
Black Swan event is nearly impossible to predict and has profound and universal impact, changing the world forever. Now, this rare bird, this crisis, has crash-landed into our lives,
threatening millions of humans. We are told to “flatten the curve” and stay home
indefinitely, while hospitals amplify their care ability and a vaccine eventually
arrives.
Before, in my workplace, I shook hands with guests. I hugged, and received
hugs, abundantly, from co-workers and friends, old and new. Last week I watched happy visitors touch, inhale, try on and breathe all over beautiful, seductive things in the now temporarily closed
Phoenix Shop. This nasty virus apparently survives on surfaces, and well, you already know what we all came to understand.
A day after swearing off embracing at work, I found myself standing a few feet from my lovely co-worker Caitlin, with whom I hug often. Suddenly I said, "Aw, forget it!" and we turned to each other for a quick, big hug. As we briefly clung together we laughed, and the world snapped back to normal again, for just a moment.
My personal prescription for sanity (other than hugs!) is to indulge yourself with Mother Nature.
Drink in the rays of the sun each day. Whether you sit beside a window in a comfy chair or lay down in the grass and dirt outside, just absorb the amazing strength of our planet while enjoying the warmth of our star.
Feast your eyes on a flower, admire trees, listen to birds,
take deep breaths of the breeze. Marvel at the miracle of your body as you walk, hike, dance, and sing in the shower. If you can, stare at the sea, or the mountains, or watch waves on the beach. (You can listen and watch nature on screens too, though that’s a little too
Soylent Green for my taste.)
Wherever you are, you can usually gaze at the stars or the
moon at night. Remember that while everything changes, some things do not. I
don’t think the
constellation of Orion is going to rearrange itself, or that
the dog-star Sirius will go walkabout off to a different galaxy.
Take comfort in what doesn’t change, or what won’t change as
much. Thick blankets, soft skin, warm pet fur, chocolate. Write letters the old
fashioned way, on paper, with pretty colored pens.
Read that daunting book you’ve had on your shelf for years. For me, it's
Old Path, White Clouds, by the beloved Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh. Relax a little - eat pasta and ice cream. After that,
take a bellydance class via Zoom! Have a kissing marathon with your shelter-in-place companion. Find solace in prayer and meditation.
For those who enjoy the company of their families and their partners, there
is a special kind of bliss in being together, and being safe. One hopes
that our
communication skills will improve, by sheer density of opportunity to
practice them, combined with the powerful need to understand and help each
other during this global emergency.
A friend gently explained to me that the well known saying “May you live in interesting times” (considered a curse) was popularized by President Kennedy to remind us that great challenges generate great progress. The Chinese saying was actually “Heroes come from turbulent times.”
When we face our fears with as much grace as we can, we become heroes.
How will we progress? Perhaps we’ll learn that we really are just earthlings,
all of us astronauts, and that we need to wake up to this
reality more than ever before. Perhaps we will find more ways to love and care
for each other, and for
our magnificent, one-of-a-kind planet. Perhaps all of this will, ultimately, be healing.
The cover of our early edition of Thich Naht Hanh’s book
A Guide to Walking Meditation, shows him as a young man, standing beside a
country road with a big smile on his face, a tall sunflower as his walking
staff.
He says, “I put my palms together, like a lotus bud, and
pray that we all find peace.” May it be so.
