Are you Connected?

Despite our beliefs in how to respond to Covid, can we all agree that an extra measure of love and grace needs to be extended by those of us who have the energy and means to do so?

Let us ask the following questions in order depending on your current energy level:

How am I, really?

How is my family?

How is my community — church and local businesses?

What more can we do for hospital workers? (9 months is a long stretch of overtime)

What about our seniors, are they getting food, attention?

How am I tapping into the global energy with my emotions and intentions?

Have I prayed and found ways to counter the current resonating fear?

So, I ask those who have the means and the energy (even the anger that has stirred up), have you served your community in ways of basic needs: physical, emotional, and spiritual? A way to fight back is to equip one another. Is everyone fed, but also has everyone been in relationship with each other at some level? Loneliness will be one of the biggest trauma responses to result from this pandemic, along with grief and loss. Our lives will not return to normal, but we can exist beyond the fear and divisiveness that has emerged from the shadows. Let us instead use our energy to serve each other and bring hope. What seems small to you may help someone in ways you cannot comprehend.

For those of you who are depleted, please reach out and find a way to connect to those of us who have the means. Let us support you. We are connected on so many levels, not necessarily how we respond to the chaos, but we are connected nonetheless, and we need to be. Like the roots that hold a willow tree, limbs wildly flailing in all directions during a windstorm, the roots are sustaining and have a vast reach. If I may continue with this metaphor, the willow tree is flexible and yielding to the current conditions. They have captured our imaginations for centuries. In my childhood, I recall using a branch as a horse with a glorious whip of a tail! Hiding under the drooping branches of a well-established and rooted Willow was undoubtedly a practice of many that came before me. Connected. Let us remember the resourcefulness and wisdom we have as a collective.