I posted this awhile back in the political section, but I think it's apropos (with some minor changes) for this forum as well...
"Everything will be okay in the end, if it's not okay, it's not the end" -John Lennon.
I just want to say that everything is happening for a reason. The world is going through a great change right now and from our lowly human perspective, everything seems out of control, chaotic and scary. But, be assured, from the highest perspective (the soul's) all is exactly as it should be. We are here to learn the greatest lesson: Unconditional Love. And right now there is so much opportunity for this. The question to ask yourselves is this: What can I learn from my actions and my feelings? Why do I feel the need to control everything and everyone around me in order to feel safe?
For the answers, I suggest, stopping, taking a rest from the outside focus and directing your attention inside, to your heart. Here, you will realize that everything really is okay, both now and in the end.
Just back from a walk in my neighborhood. We had a dusting of snow last night but only evidence on roof tops. It felt good to be out in the cold air.
@LauraF - loved your 3 questions. Apparently one of my neighbors still likes the idiot in chief. A trump/pence sign was proudly displayed on their front lawn . No idea who they are it was around another cul de sac. crazy!
We live in a suburb of Cleveland near Lake Erie.
My spring allergies have been kicking in and I wonder each morning if it’s “the virus”. Walking and yoga helps. The silver lining is that my son is doing so well at home. It is a huge eye opener that high school is so stinking stressful. And the importance of listening when they tell you it’s awful.
It feels very clear to me that this pandemic is a long overdue GIANT PAUSE. Sad that we have ignored all the warnings to slow down and are learning this lesson in this way.
Sending love and healing to you all.
There's an old saying "Let God and let go." This is great advice for a period in which events seem overwhelming and out of control. The truth is, events are always out of our (human) control. It is the self delusion that we can somehow control things to suit our own will that causes us so much stress and suffering. To "let go and let flow" puts us into alignment with our true nature of pure energy and Love. For help with doing this, we can ask the following:
"I ask for guidance so that my life flows for the Greatest and Highest Good"
I thank the lucky stars that I am the only hold out still on Long Island. He does calm you down. I have seen his updates and he is just calm and saying things that make you feel better. How the more you test the more it goes up and that is not a bad thing. I especially loved his 100 toilet paper and where do you store them comment. He make you understand the logic of what they are doing.
@jessi1978, oh yes -- that toilet paper comment! I howled at that. He said it in that great New Yawker way. I especially appreciated how he closed his remarks by asking us to focus on our humanity -- to be kind, etc. I also liked his address to some of the young people who are not practicing social distancing. He specifically mentioned young people hanging out at the parks, and he was going to go down to the parks today. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't want to mess with him.
I love people from New York.
@kksali, it's quite lovely seeing so many families taking walks during the day. And the dogs are happy -- they're getting a lot more walks!
That's wonderful about your son. It makes me wonder how many more kids might be happier without that added stress? Not just from school, but from all of the after-school/weekend activities?
It was great that you realized that you you were having a panic attack. I went through a traumatic period 20 or so years ago and they are incredibly intense!
We have a lot of processing in the night whether we are asleep and dreaming or awake and not sleeping at all
But boy I loved your understandings and realizations ?
"The sun even came out at that moment, giving me hope. I smiled. I walked away feeling, we can do this. We will get through this. We all have a part to play; we're not powerless. We will be better people at the end of this experience.
My only regret was, I wish Cuomo was running our country riggreat!
Boy I SO agree. He was greaaat!
I appreciate this forum very much. The thoughts everyone shares and information about other sources to follow are so helpful.
I just saw this poem below and it moved me deeply. I thought others here might like it as well. Source:
The author, Kristin Flyntz, is an assistant editor for Dark Matter: Women Witnessing.
--
An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans
Stop. Just stop.
It is no longer a request. It is a mandate.
We will help you.
We will bring the supersonic, high speed merry-go-round to a halt
We will stop
the planes
the trains
the schools
the malls
the meetings
the frenetic, furied rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you from hearing our
single and shared beating heart,
the way we breathe together, in unison.
Our obligation is to each other,
As it has always been, even if, even though, you have forgotten.
We will interrupt this broadcast, the endless cacophonous broadcast of divisions and distractions,
to bring you this long-breaking news:
We are not well.
None of us; all of us are suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the earth
did not give you pause.
Nor the typhoons in Africa, China, Japan.
Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India.
You have not been listening.
It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time, hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way,
buckling under the weight of your needs and desires.
We will help you.
We will bring the firestorms to your body
We will bring the fever to your body
We will bring the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs
that you might hear:
We are not well.
Despite what you might think or feel, we are not the enemy.
We are Messenger. We are Ally. We are a balancing force.
We are asking you:
To stop, to be still, to listen;
To move beyond your individual concerns and consider the concerns of all;
To be with your ignorance, to find your humility, to relinquish your thinking minds and travel deep into the mind of the heart;
To look up into the sky, streaked with fewer planes, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, smoky, smoggy, rainy? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
To look at a tree, and see it, to notice its condition: how does its health contribute to the health of the sky, to the air you need to be healthy?
To visit a river, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, clean, murky, polluted? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy? How does its health contribute to the health of the tree, who contributes to the health of the sky, so that you may also be healthy?
Many are afraid now.
Do not demonize your fear, and also, do not let it rule you. Instead, let it speak to you—in your stillness,
listen for its wisdom.
What might it be telling you about what is at work, at issue, at risk, beyond the threats of personal inconvenience and illness?
As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about quality of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky, and all of us who share this planet with you?
Stop.
Notice if you are resisting.
Notice what you are resisting.
Ask why.
Stop. Just stop.
Be still.
Listen.
Ask us what we might teach you about illness and healing, about what might be required so that all may be well.
We will help you, if you listen.
-Kristin Flyntz 3.12.2020
This morning I had a bad asthma attack. I became very frightened during and after. My man promises he will keep me safe and we will survive. He can't really promise me that but if love can save me, I will be lucky.
It's all so random. BUT we do have some power. For me, I am self isolating and on day 8. My job is transitioned to online tutoring and I am on staycation. No longer doing the long, long commutes 4 days a week is allowing me to heal my back.
I am home all day and night except for a walk daily. My man is laid off from one job and for the first time since we began dating we have time to spend.
I think the unintended gift in this nightmarescape is that we are being given the opportunity to heal our world with reduced pollution. We can also choose to use this time to connect with friends and family.
I keep coming back to the thought that we are more than our jobs. We are the spirits who consented to appear at this time for life lessons that really only the bravest could learn. We are all soul warriors.
Heard about some famous folks in the past who self isolated, Sir Isaac Newton being one. And that gave me comfort.
@ghandigirl, I'm glad that you're tutoring online and on staycation. And so happy that you and your man have one other. He sounds like a wonderful gift, as are you.
Do you know what caused your asthma attack? I can have asthma during allergy season, which has already begun here. Also if I become too stressed out. I've never had a major attack, but labored breathing on the heaviest pollen days. Northern Virginia probably isn't the best place to be for my allergies.
I agree that there are blessings in our slowing down and self-isolation. And many more blessings yet to be discovered.
I think it was probably triggered by stress. Maybe all the cleaning, laundry, and bleaching.
Sorry to hear you had a panic attack. The panic and uncertainty are hard to sit with. I am clinging to the Now as best as I can. Have to keep refocusing and reframing.
Yes he is a gift, but I think I have basically lost my daughter over him and that is a very sad outcome for me. Still, he is a very supportive and attentive partner.
Thanks for always liking my posts deetoo. I think in real life we would be great friends.
@michele-b and @ghandigirl, re my anxiety this morning: it hadn't quite reached the panic attack stage, i.e. with the racing heart and feeling like you're going to die. It's been a while since I've had one of those, and they're pretty awful. Plus I often have strange symptoms with my autoimmune challenges, and it takes some discernment for me to figure out what's going on. Sometimes it remains a mystery.
But under certain circumstances, I can be a hyper anxious person. And the fact that coronavirus has been in my psyche is probably why I immediately went to it this morning. My husband heard me taking my temperature, since the thermometer has a loud beep; after about the 10th time within an hour, my husband called out "why do you keep doing that?" That's when I put the thermometer down, sat quietly, tuned in and felt my sea legs.
Fear can turn one into a crazy person. ?
@ghandigirl, I can only imagine the sadness you feel about your daughter. But I strongly believe that story isn't over, so please remain hopeful. I am so glad that you are caring for and honoring yourself.
I have always felt a special connection with you, @ghandigirl. And although we don't live in the same town, I will always consider you a treasured friend.
I have been on clean and organize the house modefor the last few days. I want to make sure everything is in place "in case". I have been reorganizing cupboards to see what I truly have and have requested my 20 something children, one who is now home from college, deep clean their rooms. They have been working on it for some time.
We all made breakfast together and we opened some gifts. I had picked up some nice beauty spa type products after Christmas for a really good price and decided to wrap them and have everyone open them for a "pick me up".
Someone mentioned that their vet is now doing curbside service. Ours sent an email saying they were too. That is a good thing.
One of my daughters discovered that a local Mexican restaurant is doing take out margaritas in a bottle. How interesting. I would assume some very enterprising people will find ways to keep their businesses alive over the next few months.
Just got off the phone with an old friend and was so glad to hear her voice. She and I caught up. Normally we would be looking forward to spending time together at a retreat in May. She remarked that she has been doing a lot of sewing but now she is tired of it and wants to go out and do stuff-- I laughed and said it is probably because we have been told this week that we can't! We shared a good chuckle. Ordinarily we would meet up for coffee or something again after a call like this. We briefly discussed it but decided not to risk it.
Anyhow I realize she might have tried to contact me via Facebook but I have given Facebook, Instagram and Twitter-- all self identifying social media-- all up for Lent and Easter isn't for another 3 weeks. How could I have known that this Lenten season would contain such dramatic changes and events? I mean, I expected I would miss out on primary discussions but... Man! So I realized I had not had contact with my sister in a little while and sent her off an email. My sister lives in Tennessee in the Nashville area.
I also want to echo what everyone has said about Gov. Cuomo! He is my governor! I have always been a big fan of his. He has political courage. After the mass murder in the elementary school in CT, he made changes to the laws in NY regarding guns, ammunition and cartridges. This caused a lot of criticism but he stood firm. It hurt him in the last election from the 2nd Amendment people. I really liked his father too.
There are only 3 questions reporters should be asking Mango Menace:
1. Why are you still here?
2. How many more Americans have to die before you leave?
3. You do know that no one likes you, right?
Oh man, could you even imagine?!
The thought of that reminds me of being kids on the 4th of July with firecrackers. You light them and RUN...then turn around and watch them all pop, pop, pop.
It would be entertaining - in a scary way - to watch the complete meltdown that would proceed from those questions. But maybe it would speed up the process of him leaving!
First of all, welcome!
Thank you very much for sharing this poem. It is powerful and stirring. She founds words to say so well what I have been feeling too.
Thank you.
You are so truly welcomed!
I have been looking and waiting for Bear wisdom for a long while.
Waiting for Bear to come forth from his hibernation and to look at his new world after the long sleep of winter's fast.
And here you are!
Bringing us this gift as if carried like a salmon from the clenched and now releasing jaws of his own mouth that not only feeds itself but feeds its young.
And in this world where so many feel so very young, only wanting to be with groups, feeling alive only with the constant feeding of far too many news bites, it was true nourishment that we truly needed, true nourishment of spirit that we were truly craving.
And with your deep Bear wisdom you have brought and dropped this beautiful shining gem of truth into our now partly closed and almost lulled to sleep, exhausted mouths.
Our mouths wearing of endless talking not listening of endless yawning and fawning and wishing and hoping and praying for more.
You brought us this gift it its maker --deep and true and inspired poetry of the creator through its earth maker--Kristin Flintz from her deep and true and so beautifully inspired and spoken and continually shared mother earth wisdom.
And it sings to my aching soul and reminds me not to miss out on today's long walk into the wisdom of our father the sun, or the embrace of our mother, the earth.
Thank you and bless you from the bottom of my heart for this great gift. It spoke to every part of me and it truly reminded me if why I am here and how I must now refocus on the stories my own earthly elders and ancestors taught me.
Stories as they raised me in the heart of my true nature of my breathing in that truth every day in every way I knew I could . I honor that in me as I honor that in you.
Thank you Silver Bear for your being this great messenger just when it might help me the most. Thank you and welcome.