Time In The Year Of The Virus

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In the last few weeks, a delightful ease has come over us. We have the sense of time being available and deadlines not weighing on us.

Certainly our stay-at-home regime has produced savings in time. Breakfasts with friends are now replaced by phone calls, Zoom meetings and emails. Shopping is aggregated into one large trip. Phil’s telemedicine checkup with his cardiologist took 20 minutes altogether; the driving time alone would have taken that. There are no more hair and nail appointments, flowers from farmers market, or any of the other myriad comings and goings that were a part of our lives only last month.

This has created an extended sense of uninterrupted time at home with each other. We have both described time as feeling very flowing, with less sense of pressure to accomplish things. We are each working both on our own private projects and the work we do for sharing our message, but the pace has altered and the sense of “have to now” or “this must get done now” has faded. We feel freer and yet we seem to be doing most of the same things – it just feels different.

But it is not just that we have had extra hours granted to us. The pandemic has created an uncertain future about so many aspects of life: the availability of health care, the census, the elections, the food supply, the economy, the chance of catching and even dying from COVID-19. Perhaps we are blocking out those sharp-toothed threats from the future, or perhaps we’re just sensibly ignoring what we cannot control; either way, time feels more present as something palpable that we can know and inhabit. We have acquired a deeper appreciation than ever of the everyday.

Call your friends. Look at spring’s green leaves. Make soup. Breathe while you still can #quote Share on XWe are able to work from home and have savings to fall back on, but we realize that not everyone may have this same luxury of time, and that many other people are risking their lives in essential jobs or struggling financially. We think of you all and send our support and love in every way we can.

Whatever your circumstances, the same change of focus can apply. Take care of the future as best you can. Cancel that gym membership. Wipe down the doorknobs. Do whatever needs to be done, but once you have taken care of as much as you reasonably can, leave it be. Don’t dwell in the future; find joy in the present, because it surely exists. Call your friends. Look at spring’s green leaves. Make soup. Breathe while you still can.

This is an intense period for all of us. Even with all the dire aspects of this current world situation, there are many lessons to be learned that we can take into the world after the all-clear is sounded. We can be present with each other and ourselves, relax the tight drive to accomplish and to serve that we all constantly deal with, find ways to connect and to share on a larger global basis. Most of all we need to hold onto our awareness of each other, of our kinship to everyone all across the world.

When we are able to respond from peace and love rather than fear, all sorts of new experiences open to us. Let us make that our present and let us not forget it when we return to whatever world will be awaiting us out there!

Photo credit: Phil Mayes

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