from Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine sister of Erie, Pennsylvania
(Dreamstime/Víctor Manuel Mulero Ramírez)
(This is a very helpful exploration of the people crying for “freedom” to not wear masks during the pandemic and helpful to more deeply explore what exactly we mean by “our rights.” ~Alan Levin)
They call it a “pandemic,” meaning occurring all over the world, all around the globe. Horrible. Overwhelming. Heart-stopping.
The world has gone into lockdown, been felled — so many ravaged, so many sick, so many out of work, so much of the world looking straight into the abyss of economic collapse as a result. And all of that thanks to invisible particles from a random virus.
Except, not exactly.
In fact, another image may explain the real scope of this disaster with even greater specificity. …
(My guess is that most people have not heard of David Spangler, though in some circles he is considered a man of great wisdom. In sharing his message about the pandemic, a message far outside the ones seen in the media, I’ll take the opportunity to introduce him.
From Wikepedia: “David Spangler (born January 7, 1945) is an American spiritual philosopher and self-described “practical mystic.” He helped transform the Findhorn Foundation in northern Scotland into a center of residential spiritual education and is a friend of William Irwin Thompson. …
Practical Neuro-Wisdom
(Frankly, I never heard of neurocoaches before I found this online, free book. But I do see the value in their efforts to use science based research and practices to help people deal with the current spike in anxiety from the pandemic and more. The book is free and can be downloaded at the link below. I appreciate that they chose to place the following quote from the Dalai Lama at the very beginning. I hope you check the book out and find some of the short chapters helpful in navigating what is happening and what is to…
The gap between soaring cases and falling deaths is being weaponized by the right to claim a hollow victory in the face of shameless failure. What’s really going on?
(I’ve steered somewhat away from the political aspects of what’s going on with the pandemic. But with the intensity of polarization happening even about some of the basic facts, I thought I’d share this important analysis that was first published in the Atlantic. ~Alan Levin)
A Guide for Caring and Mourning from a Distance by Jeanne Denney
(Many of the articles and poems in Covid Inspirations tell us that this pandemic offers an opportunity for each of us, and humanity as a whole, to deeply reflect and reorient our beliefs, priorities and behavior. We may look more deeply at the issues we’ve been avoiding because the urgency is now right in our face. …
“What do Covid-19, Ebola, Lyme and AIDS have in common? They jumped to humans from animals after we started destroying habitats and ruining ecosystems.”
(Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades that the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of species that maintain the balance within nature cause damage yet to be understood. There is evidence that our Covid-19 experience has a direct relationship to human‘s destructive influence on the web of life. –Alan Levin)
t might have started like this: One afternoon last year, somewhere in China’s mountainous Yunnan province, a hunter entered a limestone cave. As he…
BY CHRISTIANA BEST-GIACOMINI
(This is a powerful and painful message from a Black woman after the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery for jogging while Black. Even more moving as it was written before the death of George Floyd and the protests that are now waking the nation. ~Alan Levin)
Mother’s Day was bittersweet for me. I was haunted by the image of an unarmed black man wearing a white T-shirt and khaki shorts, jogging down the road toward two armed white men, one with a shotgun and the other with a .357 Magnum.
A woman holds a sign during a…
(This article is from Ken Cohen who I met and interviewed for my book, Crossing the Boundary-Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths. Ken is a Tai Chi Master and has spent decades studying with Native American spiritual teachers. In this piece he offers some of the lessons we are being asked to learn as humans from the natural world. He also offers here some thoughts on how to respond. The article can be found at https://www.sacredearthcircle.com/post/the-story-of-the-disease-an-indigenous-perspective-on-covid-19, Ken’s website Sacred Earth Circle. –Alan Levin)
The Story of the Disease: An Indigenous Perspective on COVID-19
A Zapotec shop in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo by Dana Maza, Flickr Photos
Text ©Kenneth S…
“We can only have insight and wisdom when our vision is clear. 2020 is the year for that vision. For generations into the future, people will remember you as heroes and sheroes for your sacrifice and your vision.”
–”Commencement talk” from Sister Boi Nghiem to class of 2020
“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks…
There is a very difficult notion to express clearly and wisely.
When an individual is in pain, (or as with the pandemic, for a whole population), to even hint that it’s “really an opportunity” can be infuriating and painful. Those who are suffering right now from the illness itself, those on the front lines of “essential services,” or those deeply impacted by the social and economic responses to the pandemic deserve our empathy, our support, our prayers…period. They don’t need to be told, “Hey, this is really an opportunity for us all to grow into a better world.”
But a…
Covid Inspirations
inspiring poetry and writings responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. See intro here: https://medium.com/@covid.inspirations/these-are-the-times-98ef4b07718b
