Before all this madness began, I was writing a book. The working title is Connected, about all the thousands of ways we are quite literally interconnected. Biologically through air, water, soil, and matter. Energetically through thoughts, emotions, intentions, and love.
Well – as luck would have it – we are having a global lesson from the Shadow side of connectedness right now. Painful, frightening and deeply transformative.
Sometimes it takes a Shadow Lesson to help us understand something that the Light Side was just too nice to really get through to us. The question is, in a time of memes and funny videos, is it possible for deep lessons to go viral?
Here’s what I see that we – meaning humanity – are facing now.
1. We are all connected. Some of us like this concept and others don’t, or even think it’s a lie. Even those of us that acknowledge it, still judge others, feel separate, etc. despite our best intentions. With COVID 19 we have reached the point where it is obvious that we are connected by invisible forces. Our lives are being altered by the actions of something we cannot see, persons we never met, objects we didn’t know we touched. We are all connected.
2. Choices – tiny choices – that I make, that you make, that a stranger makes – are now matters of life and death.
To travel, or stay home. To shop or not to shop. To hug, to touch, to wash. These small choices are quite literally changing the face of humanity of this planet. But wait – maybe small choices always were matters of life and death. We just weren’t paying attention.
3. Awareness can save our lives. We have been admonished for a month now to wash our hands and not touch our faces, as if our lives depended on it. But it’s so hard! Even the health official reading the precautions at a press conference licked her finger to turn her page. My husband wore gloves to remind himself not to touch objects, and not to touch his face. He got back in the car after a quick stop in and out, and put his gloved finger between his teeth to pull his glove off. Aaagh! Humans are creatures of many habits. We want choices on auto-pilot so we can be thinking of other things. This virus is demanding that we be present. We must be aware.
4. We can envision our future. Can you see past the apocalyptic circumstances to a brighter, more connected future? Sometimes I can. But sometimes all I see is chaos and fear. Can we as a species use our great power of love and imagination to hold a beautiful vision of our future through this dire time? Humans have a capacity for imagining the future. Sometimes we haven’t used that capacity very well. This pandemic is bringing that up for us to make a choice again.
5. Life is more than just people. People are dying and surely more will. It is frightening to me, and there are moments I am scared for my loved ones and myself. But a friend said recently, as she was grieving and even fearing, it occurred to her that there are many life forms on the planet, not just humans. In the lessening of human activity, what other forms of life will regenerate and flourish? This can be a reminder that life includes many forms and species.
6. We are more than just a body. We connect through love, not only through touch. However we understand Life and the Universe, many of us know deeply that we are more than our bodies. Something in each of us lasts forever, and at the point of death, we all have to let go of this body that we identify with. In this time when we cannot hug the body of our child or grandchild, remember this truth. Send that child loving energy. Find a way to connect that resonates for the child. That connection is real – play with it, experiment with it. We are not only a body. As my brother said, use this time to get acquainted with the part of you that doesn’t die. The part of you that lives forever.
These lessons, which were not completely unknown before the COVID 19 illness, suddenly show up starkly. Shadow Lessons have a way of doing that.
Can we humans learn these Shadow Lessons fast enough to change outcomes? Can we make a thousand tiny choices that are different from what we might have done a few weeks ago? Can we take into our hearts the reality that – like it or not – we are all connected?
Can we make these love lessons go viral? I’m going to do my part.
***Check out my YouTube channel here.