危机 The characters for the word “crisis” in Chinese are made of characters meaning both disaster and opportunity. If you, like myself, have been following some of the news feeds about the Corona-19 pandemic I think we are hearing more about the disaster side caused by this virus and missing the moments that are also presenting opportunity to us.
Some may wonder what I mean by this. For sure there is a great deal of pain, of loss, and anxiety present in these days and none of us have escaped this. Our lives feel more confined, more disoriented. At the same time, we may find moments in which we can ask ourselves questions like, “how do I understand what this moment is teaching me about myself or about the world in which I live”. Pre-pandemic days were often so full that we didn’t notice questions like this raising up within us. But in these days questions are very close to the surface. We have more time to be with them and are discovering more of what is most important. We are learning that people we may have taken for granted are really essential in helping through day by day - people who stock the grocery shelves, or collect our garbage, or care for our loved ones at home or in a health care facility, or the police and fire departments, or the transit drivers, or the farmers, and truck drivers. We are all interconnected and working together we discover that all of us are important and we all depend on each other.
My sister sent me a YouTube link that I share here. The stories we tell ourselves and others are very important. This a story I want to remember. Perhaps it is a moment in which opportunity is offered to us.
Stay well and be safe.
- Joan Atkinson, CSJ