“the world has changed: it did not change without your prayers without your faith without your determination to believe in liberation and kindness; without your dancing through the years that had no beat.” ―Alice Walker, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems
I’ve already had enough of the pandemic of 2020: The Corona Virus (COVID-19). I’ll stick to the CDC website because it helps to quell my fears. I don’t want to dwell in places that I have no business being. What I mean is that my mind is dark and murky and I could get lost in the vast array of dread, anger, doubt, and projection if I let my worry go unchecked.
A few days ago I sent this message to several friends and family: “What is one thing you know to be true, for sure, beyond time and beyond space? The replies I got where not what I expected. “I love you,” was the first response from everyone, across the board.
This astounded me. Not that I don’t know (or feel) that I am loved, I know this 100%, but because their replies were so immediate, within seconds. As my teacher said, “First thought best thought.”
I smiled and thought to myself, “How would I answer this question?” What is one thing I know to be true beyond space or time?
I know that I love people,” is the first thing that popped into my head. I love connecting and nurturing and being with people. Love is the underlying context from which the world operates. I’m sure of this truth.
So in this time of uncertainty, I practice the subtle art of not giving a fu** and I remember that from where I sit in Chino Valley, Arizona, in the middle of nowhere (almost), in the rural high deserts of the South West, I AM PRIVILEDGED.
From the dictionary: privilege | ˈpriv(ə)lij | noun: special immunity, right, advantage.
What this means to me is, “I’m white, I’m 32-years-old, I’m female, I live in America, I get to choose my profession, I don’t need to go to work tomorrow, and I can take time off.” And yet I am aware that not all of us have this advantage.
Currently, I still have access to grocery stores (with food in them) and the outdoors. I have clean water to drink, I have clean air, I can press the button on the thermostat and I’m not in the “high risk” category for getting the virus. I can still walk outside of my own volition.
What is my responsibility as a person with “special immunity?” One approach is to stay home. That’s nice for me. Another approach, as my friend Laura has done, is to offer my services to help people in need, who have debilitating conditions and do not want to leave their houses, I could go grocery shopping for them.
From my cozy apartment in rural Arizona, I am still pondering this question of “What to do with my right to be human?”
Life goes on.
To not vote is still a vote. To not act is still an action. Hiding is an action. “Going off-grid” is an action. Staying silent is an action (often louder than words).
The tangible, fundamental things I can do are:
1. Stay alert to the CDC website
2. Make tea, drink it
3. Call friends and family
4. Write letters
5. Make art
6. Take walks outside
The only thing I can do right now is, keep the faith, do my own practices of self-education, study, stay healthy, and not freak out. I could hide away but I’m choosing to stay present to it all.
This is a wake-up call. This is a call to practice yoga off our yoga mats and engage with life AS IT IS. Real-life happens now.
What has yoga (read: “your life”) taught you over the years?
Uncertain times call forth our best and worst selves. The reality for me is that I need to continue to stay vigilant with the kinds of information I take in. Observe how I act and react to the current situation at hand.
What will I do when this is all over? Is it ever really ever “over?” Will I look back and say, “I wish I had not worried so much,” or “I could have sent more letters, went for walks, laughed more…” As I look into my lover’s eyes I know that I am loved.
You are loved.
“We were not meant to suffer so much and learn nothing.”
―Alice Walker, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems
yup, thanX..
Thank you.