New Time Frames

We’re into the second week of our online Temple meditation practice.  Melissa and I (with Corwyn’s help) are getting more comfortable with the new logistics, but the details still require a new level of awareness while practicing.  (Maybe not a bad thing.)  Holding to our ‘normal’ Temple meditation schedule has felt like an important anchor for us and for our community in this time when so much is in flux. Seeing everyone together on the screen as we practice, alone together in our own homes, continues to be a welcome reminder of our connection and our interdependence.

My time-scale of expectation is also being disrupted. A week ago, we decided to suspend in-person practice at the Boundless Way Temple and go on-line for two weeks, then re-evaluate.  Some of us were afraid that this was overreacting, but it seemed reasonable to be cautious and error on the side of safety. It turns out that we wildly underestimated the scope, danger and time-scale of this viral pandemic.

No one can definitively say when this pandemic will end, but no one is talking weeks anymore. Various epidemiology modelers are now theorizing it will be months and perhaps even years till we are out of danger.  One recent article in the Boston Globe referred to the possibility of recurring periods of social distancing till the end of 2021. Yikes!

The truth is, we don’t know.

And the truth is that, here, in this situation, is where we find ourselves. Where we find ourselves in the sense that we don’t really know how we got here, we’re just here. (As I don’t know how I have managed to become a sixty-seven year old when I was sure I was a much younger person.)

And we find ourselves here in the sense that this moment and this particularly uncertain time is the only time and place where we can live our lives—where we can begin to know who we are and what we are here to do.

There is no other possible world. Things could not be different.

My wish this morning is that we might we all leave behind whatever is necessary to allow us to live full and meaningful lives – to meet these challenges and learn these new ways of being – and to appreciate this brief and precious gift of being human.