When everything changes we learn what really matters.
I keep thinking about the photos of the fish in the canals of Venice Italy, where the water is crystal clear for the first time in 60 years.
I think about the whales navigating the oceans with less auditory distraction, as there are fewer tankers, cargo ships and cruise lines.
I hear the birds awakening to spring without the constant noise of air traffic. People in Wuhan China are hearing birds for the first time in years.
I can imagine the deer, elk and other animals migrating safely across empty highways.
While we’re tossing about in the unknown, creatures of all types are breathing huge sighs of relief. Our great Mother Earth has a moment to recover. She has been holding her breathe for decades. In this time of halt, she is releasing a deep slow exhale.
It’s odd as there is a sense of timelessness all around us, like when we were kids and days felt endless, and yet I still feel like I have so much to do, like there’s something more I need to be doing.
Perhaps I’m in process of shredding a skin of endless striving.
Or perhaps the strive has changed from wanting to be more, to examining the habits and stories that have kept me apart.
The stories I’ve told myself that kept me working too hard or not hard enough, working on the wrong things, valuing what’s on the outside, the stories that kept me emotionally distant from my wife and anxious about everything.
The old strive was a story of lack.
The most profound reckoning I’ve had recently is around FOMO, fear of missing out. Even at 51 years old, I am still plagued by it. Or at least I was. With everything closed and everybody hunkered, that feeling is gone and that feels good.
There is nothing to miss out on, figuratively and literally. Figuratively as the world has changed with everything being canceled. My business doesn’t have me on the front lines of this crisis, and so my business has paused. We are home, literally, present in this moment, as this is the only moment we have.
The new strive is a story of purpose.
We’ve been waiting for our Rome to fall yet nobody expected it to fall like this. It’s near impossible to comprehend what we’re in. When I imagine what comes next, I see myself as an old woman looking back and sharing where we were when it happened.
Wolf and I both believe there is another way to live.
Many in our community have been designing for it for awhile — growing food, building modest cabins in nature, working less, loving more. Wolf is my constant guide on this journey as years ago she stepped away from the script, has been wandering in the wilderness and inviting me to join her.
I have existed between two worlds. The one where cash is king and the other where the moment matters more than anything. I believe we can merge values. Even with the markets crashing, there is abundance all around us.
We have the resources and creativity to provide for all of us.
We have the resources to ensure our healthcare workers are protected.
We have the resources to ensure our grocery clerks are protected.
We have the resources to give a significant cash allowance to every American who needs one.
We have the resources to halt credit card interest, eradicate student loans, to lower CEO pay to provide raises for teachers, nurses, and all those not making a living wage.
We have the resources to design another way, a different system where we value people over profits and recognize that we are all in this together.
Now more than ever we see how our behavior affects others. If we are willing to hunker down to protect others, we will survive. Every action has a reaction.
While many are anxious about getting sick, and many are sick and some dying, for those of us living through this moment, this is invitation to design another way.
Wolf and I are personally well. We’re serious about social distancing and staying healthy. The spring light helps our spirits. We’re in constant contact with our parents, as I imagine many are, worrying about them and getting them to stay put. It took my father to have a bike accident that has him hospitalized to quarantine. He will be fine, thankfully, and the world is certainly smacking the ego down. We are in a soul revival.
The past week has had moments of fear and overwhelm and yet yesterday, while sitting in a field of grass with Wolf and our pups, I realized that we never do this. We never stop to relax unless it’s scheduled.
(Practicing social distancing)
Something remarkable is happening. It’s beyond tragic as people are sick and dying. Our South Seattle community lost a beautiful pillar and icon on Wednesday. It has gutted many of us. I know if we drop in, we will get through this with fewer casualties.
It’s a rare to pause and ask what really matters. Each of you matter to me. My wife and pups matter. Our communities and world at large matter. The well being of every person matters. Nobody can be left behind.
In this to shift to different, I see my Type A friends more relaxed and perhaps even happier as they are living in the present tense. I see people offering gifts of music, in phone calls and FaceTime, in food delivery and in genuine caring.
Living our bold truth and doing different is the foundation of our business, AUDX, and our deepest value. To practice bold, honest, awakened, expressive living in love. While I strive for it, Wolf embodies it. I am shedding so that I too can arrive.
This is the invitation. To stop feeding the ego beast. To know our souls. To appreciate each moment fully.
It’s easy for me to write this as I’m not sick. We feel sorrow and loss, our finances are precarious, which is hard for me to admit that and it’s true so no shame, and we know we are fine. There are many in an active struggle. For them, I grow my garden and provide free fresh food to all who need it.
This as an invitation for different. Let’s RSVP yes.
TODAY’S EASY ACTIVISM
Make contact with every person who comes to mind. Reach out TO See what they need. Especially people who are doing this alone.
Take a deep breathe, hold it, let it out slowly.
Consider online meditation and yoga. Our friend Laura Culberg is offering classes. Click here for details.
Our friend Frank Barbieri and friends have started a program to feed first responders. They wrote a guide on how to replicate. Check out how to donate food to hospital staff and set up a program in your community here.
If in SF, donate your extra masks and gloves to hospitals, details here.
In Seattle there is a request for people to make masks. If you can sew, you can make masks. Details here.
LastlY and politically, it is imperative FOR ALL 50 states to Vote By Mail. Trump legally can’t cancel the election. we know he’ll try. please contact your Secretary of State and Governor, especially the Republican ones, and demand vote by mail. Also, register for an absentee ballot now.
Stay safe.
Stay healthy.
Stay social distant yet emotionally connected. Please let me know how you are and if you need anything at all.
With the deepest love and gratitude -
:: Genessa