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COVID-19 as spiritual moment, part 1

“We are in uncharted territory.” That’s a statement I’ve heard and read many times in the last few weeks, and it’s true.

My husband and I once unintentionally sailed through uncharted waters. We actually had a chart, but recent storms had shifted the channel (deep passageway) and we ran aground. It was unexpected. It was disorienting. It was a bit frightening because we no longer knew the parameters of our safety.

The entire world has been thrust into an unexpected situation that is disorienting and sometimes frightening as we face a brand new virus.

What could be spiritual about a virus? Probably nothing. Not everything that touches our spiritual nature does so positively. But any moment in which we are engaged encompasses spiritual elements.

This blog begins a three-part series to explore the personal, community, and public/political intersections between coronavirus and spirituality. I hope you’ll enter the conversation and comment with your own discoveries and impressions.

The personal

Around the globe, many people’s lives have been upended by this pandemic.

The number of sickened and dead is still climbing. Thousands (maybe millions) have lost their jobs or are in fear of that eventuality. Others have found their jobs maximized in terms of hours or risk, or both. Schools have closed, visits to the ill have been limited, businesses and faith gathering spaces have been shuttered for the time being, distancing is encouraged or mandated. So much has changed, and part of the uncertainty is not knowing how long those changes will remain in place or if they may even be intensified.

In all of this, we need to care for each other and for our communities. In order to do that, we have to pay attention to what’s going on within ourselves. Like the airplane instruction that reminds us to put on our own oxygen masks before assisting someone else, self-care is an essential element in caring for other people. We should not be selfish (more about that in part two), but wealso remember that the health of our own bodies, minds, and spirits contributes to the health of the bodies, minds, and spirits of those around us.

Here are a few general principles about self-care (physical, mental, and spiritual – all of which are interconnected and inseparable) during a time of crisis.

  • Allow yourself to feel what you feel. Are you angry? Afraid? Bored? Anxious? At the end of your patience? Hopeful? Frustrated? Faithless? Grieving? Relieved that you and your loved ones are healthy? A mix of emotions is normal. Don’t repress them.
  • While acknowledging and paying attention to even the most negative emotions, lean on the more positive ones where you can. For me, gratitude is always a movement toward the healthy. I try to keep a mental list of the things and people for which I’m grateful, and I access that list when darker times and emotions threaten. During these times, I keep adding to my list: people who are working so hard for all of us to keep us healthy, or fed, or our utilities working; basics like clean water and shelter. Oh, and toilet paper.
  • Seek help when you need it. Are you being overwhelmed by depression, anxiety, hopelessness, fear? Contact a therapist; many of them are working online or by phone to help people just like you.
  • Exercise compassion toward yourself and others. This will help to calm you.
  • Limit your exposure to constant news sources, while staying abreast of what’s important and essential.
  • Stay as physically active as you can.
  • Focus on things that bring you comfort, joy, or calm. It’s early spring in Kentucky, so I’ve been spending my off time cleaning out the asparagus bed, shoveling compost, and planting seeds and seedlings. For me, gardening is tangible hope—looking forward to the future of harvesting and cooking what’s being planted.
  • Engage. Social isolation is hard on your soul. It’s a strange time when it’s inadvisable to hug, shake hands, or even be in the same room together. Find or make community when possible. Connect by phone or social media. Check on those who are physically or socially at risk. When possible, make those connections “face to face” through electronics. This week I’m coordinating Zoom gatherings of two sets of friends—I need their company!
  • Reflect. Meditate. Whether it’s a way of claiming some of your newfound extra time, or something you squeeze in on your way to another shift at the hospital, paying attention to your breath and calming your thoughts will certainly feed your soul, your mental health, and your physical well-being.
  • Laugh.
  • Share what you’re learning. I hope you’ll do that in comments here.

We’re in this for the long haul, it seems. Take care of yourself, and be well.

© Melissa Bane Sevier, 2020

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A spiritual response to the impeachment inquiry

When I set out to start a website, blog, and podcast about politics and spirituality, never could I have guessed I would launch the website and blog during an impeachment inquiry. If we are to discuss politics here, it would be ridiculous and wrong to avoid a conversation about the most politically volatile events in the last 30+ years.

I hope you’ll join in the discussion, and reflect on it in your faith communities. Here are a few things I believe we should keep in mind as the process unfolds. It’s not an exhaustive list, and I’m certain I’ll add more ideas in the future. Maybe some of those ideas will come from you.

  1. Look for the truth. Everyone is claiming to speak the truth, and often the truth of one speaker is the exact opposite of the truth given by a different speaker. This isn’t new, of course, but in a social media age where the label “fake news” is thrown about many times a day, and where bald-faced lies are sometimes recounted as if they were truth, discernment takes a little more work. How do we look for the truth? As a starter we turn to trusted news sources. Even there, it’s our responsibility to read, watch, and to listen with a critical eye. Any source that is perfectly aligned with a party or particular politician should be highly suspect. That doesn’t mean that even those sources can’t speak truth; we just have to stop being lazy about receiving everything as truth, and about being uncritical. And we must call out leaders who attempt to shut down the truth, or who repeat lies. In the midst of untruth, we recommit ourselves to speaking truth, in love.
  2. Skip the glee. This one is particularly difficult for me. I have to admit that I find some degree of satisfaction when a policy or person with whom I profoundly disagree and who is, in my opinion, deeply flawed is finally expected to answer for misdeeds, lies, and harm done to others or to our political system. I am striving to limit my public responses to ones that are measured, as kind as possible, reasonable, and spiritual. I’m working on making my private conversations equally even, but that is a work in progress, and a determination I have to renew daily. We must all remember that every actor in this crazy current national narrative is a real person even if that person has done really bad things. That humanity is an essential part of our reaction. When we lessen the humanity of another person, we also lessen our own.
  3. Use our power. Together we have far more power than any one of us has alone. Not only should we be exercising our religious and spiritual power with meditation and prayer, we also must exercise our political power. Without the power of the people and the ballot box, those who represent us lose influence. Now is exactly the time to call and write our elected representatives. Again, this is something I find hard to do because my senators and my district’s representative are all wildly interested in retaining and improving their positions of power by supporting the current administration and all its policies. However, that should not keep me from making sure they know what I believe about current events. As a matter of fact, this is precisely the time when I should be speaking out the most – remembering, though, all that I wrote above in my first two points.
  4. Never forget those who are suffering most. When a horrendous decision withdraws our troops and support from the border between Syria and Turkey, we remember the Kurds who are caught in the middle. When policies separate families, or when the President requests cost estimates regarding moats filled with alligators and snakes, we remember the immigrant and the refugee. When officials enact guidelines that favor one race, we remember the non-white citizens and residents. When economic strategy values only the wealthy, we remember the poor. And when we remember, we act.

What happens next in the current administration is very much a question mark. So we listen and pay attention with open hearts, minds, and spirits. Let us not abandon who we are in the face of a crisis of leadership.

Let us hold on to the people and things that give us life even as we watch and wait and hope for a good outcome and a better future.

© Melissa Bane Sevier, 2019