The way that this virus is showing itself is very telling. Everyone fears it on some level, and to some degree, all of us are are trying to pretend like it's business as usual. We'd like to do something different here; we want to discuss what this global crisis means for us, and what it's here to teach us.
This virus will most likely affect our communities on a wide-spread scale. And who doesn’t feel a tinge of fear in their gut when they think about the fact that this strange virus - that we don't know much about - is coming to our community? Many of us may contract it so the best thing we can do is create support systems in our communities to help each other. One of these crucial support systems is re-thinking how we respond to fear.
Oftentimes, when we're confronted with a crisis of this scale our first inclination is to attempt denial and then resort to hope, but both of these feelings are a mask for fear. It is, in essence, the very thing that we talk about all the time. This is an opportunity to examine how we react to fear and put to the test all we’ve been cultivating. Fear constricts us as we begin to hold back or try to hold on to what is precious to us. Many will respond to this crisis by hoarding and isolating themselves from others. They’ll erect boundaries to protect themselves. Some may argue that this is a prudent response, but it also brings up something very ugly inside of us because we're pushing down our fear.
Fear creates a contraction and a disconnect from our higher knowing. In moments like this we resort to the inner skeptic, trying to fill in the unknown blanks. Or we may hope in some magical-thinking-kind-of-way that this won’t affect us. Hope then becomes the solution to fear. But hope too can be a mask because it denies the very existence of fear. It is faith that we need now. Faith is very different than hope, because hope has this connotation that things will somehow work out as we hoped according to our own plan. What would it look like if we dealt with our fear differently and, instead, took it head-on and faced our fear of loss, even of death? When we're not afraid of getting sick, or even of dying, then we give ourselves an opportunity to support one another as a community and navigate our losses.
Faith embraces a higher understanding of the inner workings of Spirit. Faith is not afraid of suffering, and as such, it is unwavering. Faith teaches us to trust in what is happening and fully participate in it, even if it's not what we hoped for. We must not surrender to fear. Each of us is here on this planet because we chose to be here. We don’t know how much time we’re allotted, but what I can tell you from where I stand, is that we have work to do, and that we must continue living our sacred purpose.