The past week has been a time of intensity. It’s not just a virus threatening to infect us and to prove fatal for those immunocompromised or elderly. It’s also the uprooting of life as we know it. Some adapted fairly quickly to home life, others are struggling. It’s a lot to take in, a lot of information to process, and I think everyone is very overwhelmed right now. Within my own life, this pandemic has somehow translated into a time of high tension, drama, and false information. It’s as if everyone has forgotten that there are certain things bigger than all of us. Maybe they’re in denial. I’m not sure.

Truthfully, I don’t want to share my thoughts. I don’t want to share what I’ve been writing. I don’t want to share anything of mine. I just feel so heavy, and I don’t want to pass that on. Instead I want to share a poem that made me feel light:

Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
 
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
 
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
 
–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20