I recently saw a beautiful reflection from Nichola Torrbett about these strange times in which we live: 

Yesterday, walking in the redwoods with a dog, I decided to ask the trees about COVID-19. (This was a direct suggestion from Adrienne Maree Brown).

Basically, what I heard from the trees is that even this virus has a message for us if we are willing to hear it. No, they were not saying that “God created a virus to punish us”–trust me, I checked, because I have not forgotten the 1980s. But they were clear that there was a message.

As far as I could make it out, the immediate message is SLOW DOWN and start taking care–of yourselves, of your own bodies, of each other, of the people and other living beings who are being ground up and spit out of all your systems.

They said: “You thought it was impossible to make a sudden about-face, to step outside the relentless economic processes that reduce all of life to ‘resources’ to be expended. You said ‘We know we have to change everything in the next ten years, but we can’t imagine how.’ But here you are, brought to a grinding halt by something so tiny it is invisible to the eye.

“What if you used this time when all the events are getting canceled and many of you are being told not to report to work to reconnect with what you love?

“What if this virus brings you to your knees so that you have to admit that you don’t really know how to move forward? And then what if you started reconsidering how you’ve been living? And then reaching out to each other–especially to those most at risk– and talking about what you long for and noticing the redwoods and the daffodils and talking to us, too? What if?”

I do not in any way want to understate the concern we should all have about the impact of COVID-19. But I do wonder if much good will come from this invitation to slow down and reconnect with who we are and what we love. 

We are all in this together.

Cameron

Prayer for the Week

Loving God,

May your healing power flow
into a world consumed by fear
of sickness,
of powerlessness,
of pandemics,
of incompetence. 

We ask your presence with us and within us,
Now and forever.

Amen.