Conversation One (in the Desert Odyssey virtual relational platform series) ~ Pandemic

Pandemic
by Lynn Ungar March 11, 2020

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.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)

Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

• What does it mean for me to treat this time as sabbath? What does it mean for me to centre down?
• If I cannot be physically present to others, how can I be truly present to them?
• What does it mean for me to love the world, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health?