Connected or Isolated?

I'm posting an article I wrote for our Tidings newsletter. Since I'm the editor, sometimes I step up and say what is going on in my mind....

While a lot of us feel more isolated from our community of our church (and our friends and families as well) we also have an invisible creature binding us more together than we did a year ago. COVID-19. 

OK, it's perhaps not a creature, but it's a monster, and I think maybe imagining a dragon would not even be a stretch. The little virus picture with lots of spikes on the outside of a sphere isn't nearly as threatening as I think it should be. Sure it's invisible to the naked eye...needing microscopes to see it in reality. But it's definitely a powerful foe to all humankind, and even dogs and cats apparently.

Twice I've been tested for COVID-19, and each time I was pretty certain I didn't have the virus which would possibly end my life. But there was enough concern due to my ever present immunocompromised system, that I updated my living will and my DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) forms...and called my sons to let them know my decisions. And both the May 16 test and the August 20 tests were negative. In August I did have something else which gave me a temperature, and antibiotics knocked it out. 

We are more connected not only in knowing that my breath can infect other people (complete strangers often) but also that sitting within 6 feet of a stranger may mean we become infected. How about passing in the grocery aisles if we (or they) go the wrong direction?  And how about all those people not wearing masks?

I've taken the attitude which keeps me from being angry toward maskless deniers of having compassion towards them as if they were dying. And they may well be because of their negligence, or perhaps their elderly susceptible relatives at home will die from COVID-19. I have difficulty sometimes in feeling this compassion, when I think of how many hospital caregivers will be required to spend their time and energy on these deniers. Having been in a hospital bed in ICU at the same time as some COVID-19 patients, I directly know how much effort is given to each patient, and I'm eternally grateful for my portion of that care.

We are especially connected to the earth and nature, now that we have less contact with each other. As a pagan, I've always seen each element, each tiny aspect of nature as a holy object, including the processes of climate through our weather. It's not always how us humans would like to have things be, but it's where we humans don't have total control over it. And that's perhaps a good thing. Humanity is just one of the many thousands of creatures on this earth, though we've certainly overstepped our place in the scheme of things. I still have hope that corrections can be made to the many environmental degradations we've foisted on nature.

And I'm also grateful for our wonderful technological connectedness. It's not as good as a hug during coffee hour after the church service. But having virtual contact is still a kind of connection to other people.

The Ornish Cardiac Rehab program puts heart monitors on us as we exercise. Here I was taking a break!

 Dining room, where we watch a video or have a presentation while we eat lunch each day. When the tables are removed, later we have our yoga/stress management/meditation here, with the lights dimmed.

 The kitchen side of the dining area.

We just had a talk from Dr. Asbill, on left, our Ornish Medical Director, about plant-based diets. On right is Tamara, our nurse program coordinator.