“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” --Mark 4:38b
By now, you are probably accustomed to reading a “COVID-19 Response” communication from virtually every community you are part of. I have received messages from local restaurants, nonprofit partners, and of course, the Diocese of Massachusetts. Most of these messages offer a few common themes: wash your hands! (Wash your hands.) We care about you. Our organization has a plan to continue doing the thing we do.
In one way, my message is no different. At Life Together, we are grateful that with a little creativity and a lot of grace, many of the things our staff and fellows do can shift online while we practice social distancing. Our staff are all working from home, and most of our fellows can do so as well– from helping facilitate retreats online to live streaming Sunday worship and more. At host sites where fellows continue to serve on site, doing essential work to support vulnerable communities during this crisis, strict social distancing practices have been put into place.
All our spiritual formation and leadership training will continue in modified formats online, with Prayer Partners video calling into Friday house time and broader community gatherings happening on Zoom. We are even experimenting with a new noonday spiritual practice, so that our fellows and staff have a daily time set aside to reconnect and ground ourselves in the divine during this unsettling time. And thanks to a well-timed online order last week, we even have adequate stocks of toilet paper! We have much for which to be grateful.
Yet it still can feel like we’re all being tossed in a storm that might threaten to overwhelm us. Many of us are good at making plans, and derive a lot of comfort from knowing that we have something in place. And yet it is hard to make a plan when we can’t see when we will be able to gather again, when we will be called back to work from furlough, when the kids will go back to school. I can sit down in front of the computer and fill out my “Big Rocks” weekly planning spreadsheet, but it can’t answer the nagging questions about what all this means for Life Together– for the physical and mental health of our community, for our anniversary event planned for May 30th, for recruiting our 2020-2021 cohort. Of course, when you lift the veil you realize that all of life is so fragile. Marginalized communities, which are disproportionately impacted by disasters both human-made and natural, already know this all too well. Our voices today join those who have gone before, echoing the disciples’ cry in the Gospel of Mark: “Do you not care that we are perishing?”
I think it is okay to admit to one another and to God that this is hard. Because the most isolating thing we can do in this time of self-isolation is to pretend that we’re just fine, to carry on the charade of individualism perpetuated by White Supremacy Culture and try to go it alone. We never were alone. If we believed that before, the spread of this virus has given the lie to the myth. And now, when COVID-19 has stripped us of the ability to meet up with a friend for coffee or to visit an ill parent in the hospital, we can see clearly that we need one another to thrive. So even if you can’t talk in person, reach out to those who matter. Let your contemplative practice be more stormy if that’s what it needs to be. It’s okay to admit that you’re overwhelmed.
Because when we reach out in our anxiety and in our need, we find that Jesus wakes up. Our communities that have struggled, survived, and built up resilience over the generations come together to still the storm. And maybe, just maybe, out of that stilled storm something more just, more compassionate, and more equitable can emerge. Maybe that’s why Jesus asks in the end, “Why are you afraid?”
As we live into this time, I'm so grateful to be part of a community where the work of birthing the new is already happening. Our fellows are currently offering direct support to those on the margins: distributing food, supporting parish mutual aid networks, helping congregations and communities to connect from home, and more. And I would love to hear the stories of ways that you, members of our broader Life Together community, are responding in this moment, so that we can share them in this newsletter and on social media. We were formed as prayerful and prophetic leaders for such a time as this, and with God's help, we have a part in responding to this storm.
Blessings,
Kelsey