Not Just One Thing

We are living in the time of the novel corona virus stopped civilization in its tracks. This is the time of staying at home, of schools closing, of the economy tanking and unemployment rising to heights not seen since the great depression. A time of fear and anxiety. A time where the fragility of human beings and their creations is undeniable. A time of uncertainty that stretches out ahead of us almost indefinitely.

While all these statements are true. As I write and then read them over, I feel a rising sense of anxiety and fear in my body. But these statements are not True with a capital T. They are one description of ‘life’ in this moment. There are an infinite number of truths left out of these statements that are of equal or greater importance.

Language has the capacity to appear definitive. When we describe a situation, our words can appear to have a completeness that is simply not possible. Anytime we talk about life, or what we are going through, our description is necessarily partial. Our words and summaries may capture something essential and true, but they leave out much more than they describe.

Anything we say or any image we create of ‘what is going on’ is a story. While these stories are helpful and necessary, their appearance of completeness and solidity can be confusing and limiting. These days, much of what we’re hearing, seeing and talking about is about our current crisis—COVID-19—infection rates—economic downturns, etc, etc. The news is dire and the situation is critical.

But life is not the story we tell about it. Life itself is open to a thousand different stories—all of them true and none of them complete or lasting.

Several people recently have talked with me about their puzzlement and even guilt at encountering moments of joy and ease in the midst of the current dominant narrative of fear and anxiety. Is it OK to feel joy? Is it OK to be at ease in the midst of a global pandemic?

We can all get lost in the story of fearfulness, when life is always so much more. Of course we should be careful and work together to meet the challenges of these times, but we are also always alive and this is indeed a wondrous thing. Joy and ease arise moment after moment but if we are lost in our story of anxiety, we may miss them.

When we pay attention to our actual experience, we can begin to see that no narrative is necessary. Let the stories come and go. Believe them all and don’t believe any of them.

Life is just itself and is always available.