I was playing a drum the other day, as a way to find some harmony in my day and detach from a long day of working on the computer when it dawned on me that the only way this drum can fulfill its purpose and make its music is to respond with resonance to the impact of some force coming down upon it. When I would strike the drum with my palm, with force, it lets out a deep bellow and I can feel it in my heart and solar plexus. When I tap it gently with my fingertips, the sound is light and playful.
#COVID and #shelteringinplace and being part of this world as it grapples with a #globalpandemic, that has impact. We are all dealing in different ways, all of our life circumstances are different. Those of us who had comfort may suddenly find ourselves without income. Those of us who were working and running around from one obligation to another may be either bored beyond belief, or be finding a sense of ease as the schedule and commitments have slowed down giving us time to explore old passions and discover new interests. Those of us without stable housing or in a violent situation at home may feel as if we are in complete inescapable hell. Some of us may be healing and realigning towards our values, others may be escaping by binging and coping and self-medicating. Some of us may be experiencing bits and pieces of heaven and hell simultaneously, and be existing in confusion as we try to make sense of it. No matter the circumstance, there is an impact.
The force coming down on our lives can be severe or light, and it can change from day to day.
We are resilient beings by nature. Life starts out by squeezing us through a dark narrow tunnel as we are expelled from the warm liquid embrace of our mother's womb and slapped until we can cry as we take our first harsh breath of air at the moment of birth. Lesson 1, severe impact. Yet, if you are reading this, you survived it! You learned to walk and read, how to love, sing, swim, run, play, maybe even how to play a drum. As you learned to walk, you fell many times. Yet, here you are, a walking expert!
COVID has brought us to our knees in many ways, in prayer, in anger, in fear, in hope... We may feel like we've fallen. But as a baby learning to walk, you never gave up no matter how many times you fell to your knees. You have it in you! You've learned how to reach for your potential. We all do, lest we crumble under the weight of our fears.
Perhaps COVID is an opportunity for us to birth a new way of life, a moment for us to take our first steps aligned with what our hearts value and crave most, LOVE! Like the drum, when life bears down hard, or taps our lives softly, we too can meet our potential and play it.
