My God. Do you feel it? Do you feel something happening? What is it? It’s a shift like nothing we have experienced.
I’m aetheist. I am not new-agey. I don’t buy into any of that bullshit.
Except.
Something is happening… and it feels like humanity.
For the first time in history humans in every corner of the world are going through something together.
And everyone’s talents and hearts and love and skills are being contributed to help us get through it- to lift us so we can recall joy and what matters. The offerings are wholesome and vulnerable and come from the most inner parts of our fellow humans. We don’t know how it’s possible but every one of them stirs us.
They make us cry or laugh or feel and appreciate.
And while hear fear ringing loudly we are reminded of something greater, something we had forgotten long ago…
We can feel it below the surface…
Waking up…
Stirring…
Wanting to make its way out…
Unsure if it’s safe…
So close…
So close…
It’s beauty that we are seeing. Beauty that is made up of vulnerability, openness, loneliness, desperation, and hope. Pure, shining beauty. We are expereincing the most gorgeous parts of people- parts few of us knew were there and now are exposed and radiating.
And we get to see it. And feel it.
Seeing the soul of another is so wildly powerful. It is inspiring and connective and empowering. And with every thread woven from one of us to another our strength grows…
every note sung by a Berklee student,
every banjo string plucked by our favorite comedian,
every grocery order delivered by a strong young person to someone more vulnerable,
every doctor or nurse working around the clock,
every store clerk pulling the night shift to keep our shelves stocked,
and every truck driver keeping our supplies moving…
And we all get to be a part of it- a part of the hope of humanity! We don’t need to know how to play the guitar or intubate a patient. We don’t need a CDL or a key to the store. All we need is a commitment to each other and my goodness are we finding that easily.
Together, we bring our strength and courage and selves and hearts with a certainty we’ve never known. These pieces of us unite across meaningless boundaries and skin colors and languages as they gather into one powerful, undefeatable force.
There is no silver lining. We are where we are.
We pull in the hearts of those who mourn and hold them close. Their selves waft and move and intertwine with the humanity we are now living in. They too become part of the collective that fills up the space once consumed by terror.
And so the virus came… and it threatened us. It threatened to take not just our lives but our humanity, our hope. It threatened to throw us further into the depths of aloneness and fear and isolation. It pulled out all the stops- literally requiring us to separate to heal, a seemingly impossible combination.
It seems that what the virus did not count on was our humanity finding its way back to us and bringing its light with it. And no virus is strong enough to destroy that, we’ve all joyfully learned.
A rennaissance has come, it seems. One that deep down we knew we needed but would never have known how to create. It is a time in our shared history that will forever form the rest.
When 2020 began we could not have imagined all we’d go through. As snow melted and the grass began to green the despair we felt was unfathomable. We didn’t know the blooming of flowers could accompany collective hopelesness.
What we also did not know was the powerful force that is our fellow humans; that their willing vulnerability could be our lifeline. Our understanding did not yet exist that it is each other whom we count on in times of the deepest despair; not just for the things that sustain our bodies, but for the things that sustain our souls.
When the world gets back to normal -and it will- we will have a new collective; a new shared experience that will permeate humanity. Our meaningless boundaries will certainly be found again. All of the “isms” that plague us incessantly will surely return.
It seems hopeful though that this pandemic has allowed us to see each other for the first time. Maybe now it will be harder to pretend we have not.
Here’s wishing humanity a future of seeing each other, loving each other, and remembering what it was like when we all came together to move through a hard thing. Here’s wishing that we remember how it felt to see the soul of another- how deep the gratitude ran whether we were giving or receiving.
Here’s to remembering what it felt like to have our Starbucks paid for by the car in front of us or gift cards bought to be used later as our community rallied to keep us in business, or being paid for music lessons that couldn’t be taught because we all came together for the sake of each other.
Here’s hoping that we carry some piece of this with us- that it doesn’t get buried so far down deep that it lies in wait to be woken again. May we continue to stir the vulnerability, care, thoughtfulness, kindness, and watching out for each other that we’ve experienced in a new way this year. Let’s not need something as disruptive as what we have experienced this year to remind us that we all belong to each other.
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