As a participant in the Certificate in Resilient Service, we were encouraged to make our own Way of Life. A Way of Life is a guide to help incorporate practices that point you towards your values. When the shelter-in-place order started, I began to recognize little parts of my day that brought me joy. It started with a cup of well-made coffee. From there, on each of my walks, I would begin to think through ways I wanted to grow and learn from this pandemic. That eventually led me to write my own Way of Life for this particular time.
Let the sun wake you up. Grind the beans, heat the water,
and make your cup of coffee. Enjoy it. Drink it slowly. Notice how your
pour-over tastes much better than the drip brew at work.
Don’t make the news your lectionary. Give
thanks. Meditate. Pray. Pause before you
open your device. Listen to the birds outside
of your window.
Work hard, but take breaks. Pay attention to your body. Get
out of the stiff kitchen chair at your makeshift desk. Stretch.
Breathe. Make a cup of tea. Go on a long walk in the middle
of the day.
Let your son distract you. Let your dog rest her head on your
lap. Pressing send one more time will not change the world.
Replacing your anxiety with presence just may though.
Breath in,
“This is not…,”
Breath out,
“all up to me.”
Breathe in the air shared by every other human on this earth.
You are not alone in this wildness.
Stop working and disconnect. Dig your hands into the soil. Call that
person you kept telling, “we should get lunch sometime,” But never did
because you were too busy … or too terrified they would rather not.
Let yourself feel the weight of the world in your hands.
Run your fingers across the ocean. Hear the trees breathe
in renewed air.
Clasp your loved one’s hand from far away. Grieve with them that
they couldn’t walk at graduation. Or that she labored alone for two
hours while waiting for a room.
Hold the earth just long enough to recognize it is far too heavy to
place on your back. Set it down. Watch the sunset and hold onto
gratitude for this single day.
Sacred Space is curating a virtual gallery to offer space to communally share how we are processing in this season. We would love to be witnesses to the ways you have been showing up with yourself to grieve and lament. Follow this link to submit a photo of your art, a written piece, a recording of you playing music, or any other form of processing. In the coming weeks, you can visit the Intersections blog to see artists highlighted.