Love in the Time of Corona(virus)

Our world is ending…or so it seems. The perfect virus escaped China and spread like wildfire, unbeknownst to its host who displays no symptoms for the first two weeks of infection. After two months plaguing the planet with a highly contagious respiratory infection, Coronavirus has successfully thrown the world as we know it into a perfectly orchestrated kind of chaos.

We know all of this….yet. There are deeper questions at stake: Who am I within this global hysteria? What will the chaos reveal about my character? How will I spontaneously respond to my surroundings when it’s the end of the world as we know it?

I happen to be writing this as my marriage is disintegrating for no plausible reason. I am writing this as the Reserve Bank has closed my business account for no plausible reason. My business, which was just starting to take off, is in an industry fundamentally threatened by COVID19. I have two small children who need me, limited savings to support them, and my family of origin lives an ocean away. I would be forgiven for witnessing my personal life as a catastrophe.

Yet, once the shock of these events wore off, I understood that falling apart will not stop circumstances from changing at a rapid speed. A set of circumstances to which I have no choice but to simply respond. In each moment.

So, this morning I took the time to calm my mind. I lay in bed watching the birds flutter amidst the leaves of a tree outside, their world exactly the same today as it was yesterday. I had coffee with a good friend at the same old haunt I’ve loved all these years.

I sat down to work on things left unattended in the “busy-ness.” I called a friend in Europe and offered to help. I met my husband to tell our kids he’s moving out. I allowed myself to feel the fear of being alone….and in self-quarantine. I washed my hands.

One thing is for certain right now – nothing is certain. Nothing outside of us can shield us from this uncertainty. We have an opportunity at times like these to draw on our rich network of internal resources and learn the value of resilience.

We may now embrace creativity. Responsibility. Community. Slow living in self-quarantine. Love….of the surrendered, holistic variety. Love in the time of Corona.