Chaos + Creation's Essential Unity
In times of crisis and crazy, people traditionally come together to soothe each other—with touch, food, a safe space. Whether facing flood, fire, or fever, we humans have always known that it is essential to stay connected. But this situation is different, to say the proverbial least. This time physical closeness and hands-on help is discouraged or forbidden. We have been stripped down to our “essentials” (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). Our social gathering and support is forced to be virtual, and all contact has been largely demoted to a shared technological reality of pixelated moments. But at least there’s that. Thank goddess for that. Ironically and painfully enough, this crisis is demanding us to experience the very isolation our online lives have unwittingly been preparing us for.
And as we learn to navigate this temporary normal, I am, as many, alternately traipsing, tip-toeing, and crawling along the spectrum of emotional response to this crisis—at one moment smiling, breathing deeply, practicing yoga, meditating, calmly whistling while I bake granola and bottle kombucha, walking in the woods and listening to birdsong … and then the next moment, I am on the fast-arcing rope swing of a freakout, teeth unconsciously gritting, heart aswirl and gut aflutter, dashing through the house wiping down everything but the dogs—ok, also the dogs—with disinfectant wipes, glued to the news or social media that is feeding the frenzy, entertaining conspiracy theories of Handmaid’s Tale proportion and reliving episodes of Last Man on Earth. I'm simultaneously making to-do lists, formulating emergency homeschool curricular guides, assessing supplies, worrying about our lack of toilet paper, and managing countless text and email threads meant to keep me connected but distracting me truly from the moment and people at hand. Life is at a standstill and yet it is hurtling forward at an uncontrollable pace.
And then I simply remember to STOP.
Breathe on purpose. Look up. Look outside. Open a window. Better yet, walk outside. Because right now it is essential is to feel the sun and rain on your face. It is essential to take deep draughts of fresh air. It is essential to peer for the moon amongst the clouds and find the stars winking at you. It is essential to touch the grass, to witness the blossoms on the plum tree. It is essential to pay attention to what is tangible, to what is right in front of you, to what can be seen, heard, felt, and tasted.
Right now connection means (re)forming our relationship with nature, which will, naturally, lead back to ourselves, our families, our communities. The earth’s phenomena is our phenomena. Our very bones and tissues
are made of earth’s elements, each one of us the same. Our very nature is what connects us all. If in body and spirit, then surely also in sensation and memory. At the root of the heart. In this moment, we all have the opportunity to know ourselves, our familiars, our surroundings profoundly. If we allow it, in every moment life will begin anew.