Choosing How To See
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 become 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

And, what if…

If we subscribe to the philosophy that life is always working out for us, that there is an intelligence far greater than humans at work…
That all is interconnected.
​What if…

1. the virus is here to help us?
2. To reset.
3. To remember.
4. What is truly important.
5. Reconnecting with family and community.
6. Reducing travel so that the environment, the skies, the air, our lungs all get a break.
7. Parts of China are seeing blue sky and clouds for the first time in forever with the factories being shut down.
8. Working from home rather than commuting to work (less pollution, more personal time).
9. Reconnecting with family as there is more time at home.
10. An invitation to turn inwards — a deep meditation — rather than the usual extroverted going out to self-soothe.
11. To reconnect with self — what is really important to me?
12. A reset economically.
13. The working poor. The lack of healthcare access for over 30 million in the US. The need for paid sick leave.
14. How hard does one need to work to be able to live, to have a life outside of work?
15. To face our mortality — check back into “living” life rather than simply working, working, working.
16. To reconnect with our elders, who are so susceptible to this virus.
17. And, washing our hands — how did that become a “new” thing that we needed to remember. But, yes, we did.
18. The presence of Grace for all.
19. There is a shift underway in our society — what if it is one that is favorable for us?
20. What if this virus is an ally in our evolution?
21. In our remembrance of what it means to be connected, humane, living a simpler life, to be less impactful/more kind to our environment.
22. An offering from my heart this morning. Offered as another perspective. Another way of relating to this virus, this unfolding, this evolution.
23. It was time for a change, we all knew that.
24. And, change has arrived.


25. What if…

NOW
​"There exists only the present instant...a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence." Meister Eckhart