Caring Through COVID-19 ...

You Deserve Love.

Anonymous

Hello Everyone,

COVID-19 has turned life upside down for all of us including, and perhaps especially, family caregivers and helping professionals. While these two groups already have PhD's in caring for others through times of uncertainty, even their cache of coping strategies can feel strained by today's circumstances.

As many of the things modern humans count upon to be solid and unassailable disappear, helpers, like everyone else, can become anxious and frightened and lost and confused. The earth shifts beneath our feet. We grasp for something solid to hold on to but can't seem to find it. Little makes sense. In our shock, we lose our bearings. Everything is affected.

An early response to this kind of crisis is to reach out for control, to try to make the uncertain certain again. As we slowly realize that we're living a new reality and can't return to "normal", we begin to search for ways to cope. Depending upon our histories and personalities, some of us withdraw and others reach out. Some hoard toilet paper and others pray. Some tell stories of light in the darkness and others share rumours and tales of doom.

Fortunately for me, I made two small discoveries this week that offered a positive pathway for coping. This path is one with which you're all familiar - the path of caring - and the two things that reminded me to care were an anonymous message and a poem. Let me share them with you.

I noticed the anonymous message during a solitary early morning walk through the deep ravine behind my home. The clear sky had brightened though the sun's rays had not yet crossed the edge of the ravine. As I walked down the steep trail through dark evergreens and early spring growth, I came to a wooden bridge crossing a rushing stream. Halfway across the bridge, I noticed, on my left, a torn piece of paper, damp with dew, anchored to the railing by a small rock. On it, someone had written in pencil the words, "You Deserve Love." You Deserve Love - a simple reminder of how important it is to treat ourselves with love and care through difficult times like these.  I'll never know who scrawled this message on a torn bit of paper and left it on a wooden railing for all who passed by but I'm grateful that they took the time, and cared enough, to do it.

The second reminder to care came in the form of a poem written by a Father Hendrick, OFM, whose personal details are also unknown to me. I tripped over his writing in an article by a West Vancouver priest who had returned from doing volunteer work in Assisi, Italy just before the borders closed. The poem goes like this:

Lockdown

Yes there is fear.

Yes there is isolation.

Yes there is panic buying.

Yes there is sickness.

Yes there is even death.

But,

They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise

you can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet

the sky is no longer thick with fumes

but blue and grey and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi

people are singing to each other

across the empty squares,

keeping their windows open

so that those who are alone

may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland

is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.

Today a young woman I know

is busy spreading fliers with her number

through the neighbourhood

so that the elders may have someone to call on.

Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples

are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, 

the sick, the weary.

All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting.

All over the world people are looking at their neighbours 

in a new way.

All over the world people are waking up to a new reality. 

To how big we really are.

To how little control we really have.

To what really matters.

To Love.

So we pray and we remember that

Yes there is fear.

But there does not have to be hate.

Yes there is isolation.

But there does not have to be loneliness.

Yes there is panic buying.

But there does not have to be meanness.

Yes there is sickness.

But there does not have to be disease of the soul.

Yes there is even death.

But there can always be a rebirth of love.

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.

Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic.

The birds are singing again,

The sky is clearing,

Spring is coming,

And we are always encompassed by Love.

Open the windows of your soul

And, though you may not be able

to touch the empty square,

Sing.

Father Hendrick, OFM

So, two synchronistic reminders to care well for ourselves and to notice and care well for others. Could there be a better wisdom path in these days of uncertainty?

And as we practice caring for ourselves and others, let's also remember to extend our deepest regard and appreciation to all who sustain our caring in these difficult times - family, friends, colleagues, inspirational writers, spiritual teachers, poets, artists and, especially, the physical, mental and spiritual care providers who put themselves at risk every day to keep us well. Equally, let's remember to follow ALL the current public health directives so we're here to care for the years to come.

Keep well, everyone, and please do your best to nourish yourself and others so we can all keep on caring ...