Staying Together Through Hard Times
Today I wanted to acknowledge what's going on around us in the world right now, for while some things remain unchanged, many aspects are different, and I want to provide another viewpoint, a gentle reminder, and share some solidarity together this morning.
Sometimes I feel strangely opposite of an alarmist. Over more than 2 decades, I've trained my reactive instinct to find stillness and inner choice when the environment around me grows turbulent.
Despite this, on Friday I felt disquiet within me:
Hearing of waiting lines for hand sanitizer 2+ hours long of principally elderly people in Seattle and here on Mercer Island. Hearing of schools closing down, entire companies working from home... I spoke with my fiance on the phone that morning - me at home, and he at his workplace - and heard of more lives being claimed by the covid-19 virus.
I tried to go about the tasks I had in store for my day, but I felt uneasy.
Then I realized: Something didn't feel good about being apart from David while I was perceiving danger in our community, in our world. Of course I had felt fear, discomfort, concern, sadness in days prior, but not quite like this Friday morning. I didn't like being separated from him when feeling fresh fears surface within me. And I've never noticed being in this type of situation before either - it felt strangely new. I was afraid.
It wasn't easy to recognize, but with thoughtful attention, I was able eventually to put my finger on what was wrong.
Once I recognized what I was feeling, it was relatively easier to say it out loud, to feel more in control, and to feel more hopeful- more like we were looking the same thing in the face together, and might be able to move forward.
I still took the bus to work, just taking entirely different precautions. One way I felt better in recognizing that many people are feeling this way, not only me. By taking a tiny action such as sitting myself on a nearly empty bus - just like other days - I show myself in my actions that all is well, and we are connected in consciousness and in concern.
Other interactions also gave me peace:
I complimented a young woman in the elevator at the Tower on her perfume, and she shared that it was Bath & Bodyworks hand sanitizer! Then she shared some with me.
I exchanged wonderful, longer-than-usual conversation with a woman at our local grocery store later on near the checkout, and she brought up parallel fears about her little ones' health. I empathized and comforted her with some information I had from a good source.
I had many other human exchanges of hope with clients in person, and through social media on Friday and Saturday.
I went to my yoga practice on the Island yesterday, as I will this morning, and though the room was half as full, and there are double-sanitization measures in place, it felt reassuring to be with others.
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I want to encourage us all to keep our heads up.
It is not helpful to deny fearful circumstances - we cannot trick our own selves out of fear for very long.
What is helpful however, is to speak fear out loud, and acknowledge it, and comfort ourselves and others - freeing us up to problem solve together with others, not in isolation
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So yes, we might all choose to keep a little more to ourselves these early days in March, but in our inner domain, we also have freedom to choose how to spend it.
If something in this blog has struck a cord with you, or you or someone you know needs support at this time, I just wanted to invite you to book us a time to talk via this link.
We are all in this together; know that you are never alone.
Pictured: the author/owner, Mandy Barbee
*Originally written on August 30, 2018, this is one of the author’s personal favorite short stories.