DAY 40*

Dear Universe - As we all know some days are easier than others. I hear uncertainty sneaking through the most confident of my compatriots. My questions are endless. Is shutting everything down going to be an endless spiral down destined to break our spirit? Or, will it clear the path for our ascension; for a renewed reverence of our interdependent place in the universe? Could it break our materialism and addictions allowing us to see the imbalances we’ve co-created? I have no answers. Only more questions.

So....
Here is how I am starting my 40th day in physical distancing quaran-time. With a list for all I am grateful for today and everyday -
My family (human and non-human)
My home
My friends
My work
My Coop

The clean water flowing
The clean skies clearing
The paychecks arriving
The garden greening
The UPS and mail people delivering
The healers risking and tending
The birds
The lengthening days

And then, I rise (with Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise)

For those of you still reading, the below is an excerpt is from Heather Cox Richardson yesterday. Follow her on facebook or sign up for her newsletters.  She is a brilliant historian and current day truth slayer. Heather, Rebecca Solnit and adrienne maree brown slay it everyday.

“Today’s other big news was Trump’s suggestion at his coronavirus briefing that it would be worth studying whether injecting disinfectant into patients would kill the novel coronavirus. "And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?" he said. "Because, you see, it gets on the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So that you're going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds — it sounds interesting to me." He also suggested using heat and light to kill the virus.
Doctors were horrified at his comment, calling it irresponsible and dangerous. Disinfectants are poisonous and are deadly if they are used inappropriately. “To be clear:” emergency medicine physician Dara Kass tweeted, “Intracavitary UV light and swallowing bleach or isopropyl alcohol can kill you. Don’t do it.”

WTF? WHY IS THIS IDIOT STILL IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

I also recommend checking out Gov. Cuomo taking on McConnell in a recent NYT article.  The perfect ticket would have been Warren/Cuomo. Sigh. 


*my day 40 was Friday, April 24th - not sure who is in charge of an official count.

This is a test of the emergency interdependence network. Will the collective awaken?  Is this the unraveling of society as we know it?   Is the pause button working?  Has the curve flattened?   Who is in charge of the truth?  Is the data we are provided reliable?  What does it mean to NOT trust science?  Who calls the closures, the openings, the shelter in place orders - the president, the governor, the mayor, the minister?  Can we question authority without being socially ostracized for not taking care of the collective?  We still, we stay - all in the name of protecting each other.  What are we really protecting ourselves from?

We have  moved from the screen in the cubicle or classroom to the screen in the home office or spare bedroom, if we are lucky enough to have those.  How about a therapist seeing patients from her bathrooms!   We  socially isolate while a virus knocks on the doors of our elders, our infirm.  Frontlin-ers - grocery stockers, postal workers, internet providers are keeping us connected and fed.   Physicians, nurses, researchers, and all first responders risk their lives to keep us alive and safe.   

Pearl Buck is quoted as saying, "If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday."  I don't want to dwell in yesterday, but I can't help leaning on prophecies that said we humans would be here now.  Many  cultures called this and have words for this time:  orita in Yorubo, the narrows from an Abenaki educator, the 7th prophecy from the Ojibwe, and how about the road less traveled from Vermont's very own Robert Frost.   It is time to say good-bye to our old ways. 

I have dozens of questions and no answers.  I am trying to be ok with that. 

These are extraordinary times. Asking extraordinary things from each one of us. I keep coming back to the idea/question - what am I being asked to learn here, now, in this place, in this time? How can we open to the lessons and the love to consciously move forward with this vast example of interdependence and inter-connectedness to all living beings remaining at the center of our every breath? Time will tell. For now, I am trying to show up in each moment and that is not always easy. Sending you all love and please take good care. As a friend has said this is the great “unraveling of society as we know it”. May we follow the thread of this new, yet old, knowing to the human’s embrace of perennial practices in the great unknown.

I hope you are finding rituals, comforts, and movement to stay strong as we wait this out, comfort each other and send a collective prayer to those on the front lines. 

I wanted to share a poem by Jan Zwicky (courage-zwicky-poem.pdf).  I've also added some recent photos here.