I’ve written before about my tendency to expect the worst, so it won’t surprise my readers to know that I’m struggling to cope with the uncertainty and fear generated by COVID19. And I know that’s true for just about every one of you, too. Since one of the things I do best is curate information to share with you, so I thought that might be one way I could help you (and me) cope. This special edition of the blog is a compilation of the best advice I’ve seen over the past few days. There are lots of resources here, so you may want to digest one or two at a time. Dip into all the collective wisdom here.
Sabbath:
Many people have shared Unitarian minister Lynn Ungar’s beautiful poem “Pandemic” on social media, but in case you missed it, read it here. I just love her opening lines:
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.
I know that many folks are working harder than ever, especially the health care professionals trying to handle this crisis, the teachers and professors who suddenly need to teach online, the parents who now have to try to work at home with all the kids underfoot or those who are scrambling for childcare because they have to go to work, the stockers at all our stores who are struggling to keep us in supplies, and many more folks. Still, normal life has been suspended for all of us, and it’s an opportunity to take some time to do the things you may not normally have the luxury of doing. So here are all the ways I’m trying to treat this time as a Sabbath:
Take more walks because that’s something I can safely do outside the house. On Saturday, my husband and I took a long walk to an overgrown green space in our neighborhood to meet a visiting herd of goats who are happily munching away, oblivious to the chaos of our human world. There we could greet our neighbors in a space where we could maintain some social distance. Yesterday, we walked on the Cottonwood Trail, a green space maintained by a local conservation organization. These outings were good for my soul and gave me reasons to smile.
Read more things that aren’t the news. I’m catching up on the backlog of magazines in my rack and tackling some books that have been in my pile for a while. Yesterday I plowed through two issues of Garden and Gun and was delighted to find not one but two pieces by my friend Latria Graham including a great profile of Alexander Smalls.
Cook. Last night, I tried a new recipe for dinner. Most evenings, my husband and I make some tried and true recipe, even if we’re tired of it, because it’s just easier to make an old standard.
Jigsaw puzzles are next on my list of “Sabbath” activities. And since my husband and I had to cancel a trip to Charleston to visit the Gibbes Museum of Art, I think I’ll check out these virtual museum tours. What’s on your list? I’d love to hear in the comments.
Look for examples of Humans Being Beautiful:
There are lots of examples of people being ugly in the news right now, but to borrow my friend Sharon’s expression, right now I’m focusing on humans being beautiful. Here’s what theologian/journalist Krista Tippett has to say on that topic: “You could make a persuasive case that humanity is hurtling backward. But hope calls me to attend, too, to the world that wants to be born. Our strangeness turns up as ugliness and betrayal and destruction, and it turns up as bravery and creativity and unfathomable dignity. I see beautiful lives, everywhere, stitching new relationships across rupture, seizing new life out of loss.” Some examples of humans being beautiful:
Today I walked in my neighborhood. One of my neighbors—someone I really only know by sight--puts up delightful displays for various holidays: Easter, Halloween, Christmas. For example, her Christmas display often includes a cool painting of the Grinch on one of her windows. Her house sustained some pretty bad damage in last month’s tornado, and I didn’t expect to see Easter decorations this year. But this afternoon, I stopped to smile and snap this photo because she had scattered these playful giant Easter eggs in her yard.
I am missing my yoga studio a lot—for the community and especially for the stress-reducing elements of my yoga practice. Some beautiful yogis out there are taking to the internet to help all of us who are missing our yoga communities. Today my awesome niece Maia Shmueli offered up a lovely calming yoga practice via Facebook Live. Tomorrow, I’ll try my friend Miranda Peterson’s gentle practice on Youtube. Miranda owns a yoga hiking company called Namaste in Nature that’s based in Asheville, and she has her own YouTube channel with lots of similar videos, so you might want to subscribe to her channel if yoga or meditation is one of the things you need to cope with this crisis.
While I ate lunch today, I watched this fabulous Facebook video by my friend Jed Dearybury. Jed is a gifted educator, and for the next few weeks, he plans to do a series of these Reading With Mr. Dearybury videos at 9 am each weekday morning. He will read a children’s book and include some kind of educational activity each day. This morning he read Peter Reynolds’ book The Dot, and started the kids on a multi-part art project. If you have little ones at home or if you just need to feel better about the world, watch Reading With Mr. Dearybury. It will make you smile.
Neighbors are helping neighbors and strangers all over the place. I see people posting on social media offering to pick up groceries, fill gas tanks, and run errands for folks who are uncomfortable or unable to leave their homes at all. Someone in my town formed a Facebook group called Spartanburg and the Corona Virus: How We Can Help. It’s full of updates on closures, cancellations, resources, and offers of help. I’m betting every community has groups like this forming.
I hope you’ll share some of your examples of humans being beautiful.
Staying Calm
Managing your anxiety can be one of the toughest challenges right now.
Morra Aarons-Mele of the Harvard Business Review does a terrific podcast called “The Anxious Achiever,” and today she put out a special episode on coping with coronavirus fears. She interviews my favorite leadership coach Jerry Colonna who urges us to focus on the things we do have control over and business psychologist Camille Preston who encourages us to try to approach this crisis with a growth mindset. I urge you to make some time to listen to this podcast. It’s probably the single best thing in this blog post. One of my favorite bits from Colonna: “I can’t say with certainty what will happen next, but I can say, ‘Love wins, not only over hate but over our own fears. Love wins.’”
Buddhist teach Sharon Salzburg writes “ An element of coping with anxiety . . . is recognizing it. Is the threat in the moment, or is it in the mind? Once you name it, it’s easier to address it.” Read more of her advice here.
Writer Gretchen Rubin suggests a lot of common sense things we can do to stay calm. We all know most of these things, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded.
Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Won’t Stop Talking, offers up a meditation from theologian C.S. Lewis on “How to Live in the Atomic Age,” connecting his thoughts to the current situation.
If you have good tips on keeping your cool in this time, please share them.
The Economic Impact:
There’s no doubt there’s going to be a big economic impact from this pandemic, and it’s going to hit lots of folks hard. Here are a few resources to help you weather the financial side of the crisis:
A great column from the New York Times offers suggestions about investing, job worries, and managing your finances.
Sally Krawcheck of Ellevest outlines some money moves you can make right now.
Freelancers will be among those folks who are hit especially hard by the financial fallout. The aforementioned Latria Graham posted a great series on Instagram this morning with tips for freelancers about how they can keep moving forward in the face of all this uncertainty. She’s mslatriagraham on Instagram.
And finally, a poem. Krista Tippett introduced me to Irish poet Padraig Ó Tuama on her podcast, and now he has his own podcast series, Poetry Unbound. I recently started reading his poetry collection Sorry for Your Troubles, and I found this one particularly special for this time in our collective lives: “The Facts of Life.” Like Jerry Colonna, he focuses on love.
The next weeks promise to be challenging ones for all of us. I hope, dear readers, that you and those you loved are able to stay health, seize some joy from the jaws of uncertainty, and hold hands—virtually this time—with strangers.