As the world responds to the coronavirus with hygiene best practices and social distancing, there’s also a growing awareness that spaces to share, to remember our interconnectedness, and to simply be with each other are crucial responses to the fear and isolation of lockdown. 

Enjoy the poem below and share your thoughts, or simply use this forum to share with the community what is alive for you today, in the ever-evolving landscape of the world right now.

Pandemic
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.

–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20