The Energy of Coronavirus

We turn on the news and we always hear the latest update on how this virus works or what our leaders are doing to contain and get ahead of the pandemic or the latest count of new cases and sadly the latest count of people passing.

It seems all too easy to be glued to the television set with our time in quarantine.  Why?  Because we are all afraid.  We fear anything that seems to have sneaked up on us and taken the world by storm.

I have heard Monk Dandapani say, “Where awareness goes, energy flows.”  I would add that we have the power to choose the kind of energy that flows through our awareness.  Therefore I want to focus on the fear this virus has elicited from our awareness.  Then I would like to offer an alternative kind of energy in its consideration.

Fear

Fear is an interesting kind of energy.  Our society would have us believe that fear is always bad and we must never succumb to such a weak emotion.  However fear plays an important role in our lives when used well.  People are beginning to realize that it is important for our survival.  It is a powerful motivator for many reasons.  It used to motivate us to run like hell when a predator chased us in the Serengeti! However when the instigator of fear was gone, we went back to our normal lives.

Today fear can motivate us to live a more fulfilling life.  Nobody wants to get old and realize they’ve done nothing to leave a positive legacy in this world.  Erickson referred to this last stage of psychosocial development as “Integrity vs Despair”.  People have a sense of integrity through the pride they feel of their accomplishments.  Others may feel a sense of regret and often ask themselves what could have or should have been.

When something like this virus comes along, I feel people are forced to truly consider their time on this planet.  We are forced to realize our mortality.  We often go about our daily lives believing that what we do is for the best.  However remembering that we are mortal has a way of focusing our minds.  Our mortality seems to provide the foundation to make sound judgments on what truly matters to us on this planet by realigning ourselves with our spirit and soul.

What does our spirit REALLY want?  Can there be anything more important than our families?  Or our service to others?  We are afraid not necessarily for selfish reasons.  We are afraid of losing the opportunity we have to help people.  There are people on this planet that are not afraid of their mortality.  Why?  Are they just ignorant of what inevitably awaits us all?  Unless you were born yesterday and filled with so much possibility, most people understand that this life is finite.

I know a priest who faced major surgery.  There was a strong possibility that he may pass away on the table.  However he was unafraid.  Why?  Is he crazy?  Did he have blind faith in God?  I don’t think so.  I think he spent a lifetime in preparation for this moment; in whatever form it may have taken.  He spent a lifetime in service to others. Furthermore, he spent his life reminding himself daily that his time on this earth is not infinite.  This motivated him to ensure every day had purpose and meaning to fulfill his ultimate mission in life.

Gratitude

Joel Osteen did a sermon recently about how Moses parted the Red Sea in order to save his people from the pharaoh.  He had incredible insight of the situation because Joel realized that while most people today have heard of this miracle, they do not appreciate it from the Israelites’ perspective.  Moses’ people were scared!  Why?  Because it was a chaotic scene.  And now they’re being asked to go between two towering walls of water that make noise louder than thunder and defies any logic about how water is normally.  Add to that, there are children running around and probably more scared than their parents.  The elderly must be helped across without the modern technology of a wheelchair.  It was basically a logistical nightmare!  AND they had a limited time because the pharaoh’s army was hot on their tails!

Joel noticed that we often go through chaotic times in life.  And we do so without realizing that we are walking through a miracle.  But how can we lose sight of a miracle?  We think we would notice that parting the Red Sea is a miracle if we saw it with our own eyes.  However we think that way because we have the benefit of hindsight.  Fear has the ability to blind us in the present moment.  However fear can be our guide to gratitude.

Gratitude is wonderful!  Why?  Because I feel it is the antidote to fear.  How can it be the antidote to fear?  Let me ask you something, have you ever felt grateful and afraid at the same time?  I personally have not.  I find it quite impossible.  This is probably because fear is like a robber in the night that comes and steals away our peace.  However once we make peace with whatever preoccupies our thoughts, we may find gratitude towards the thing that initially caused fear.  When this happens, we deliberately turned fear into our personal guide.

So our society is currently afraid of the Covid-19 virus.  How do we use our fear as a guide to make peace with a virus?  That’s an odd thought.  We don’t simply shake hands, do we?  Obviously not.  But we can find peace if we see the virus as a teacher.  The best teachers not only know how to teach but how to guide the curiosity of their pupils to a life of learning and enlightenment.  They help us realize our passions and what we love to learn!

We all had a favorite subject in school.  It’s usually the one we had the best grade in.  Why?  Because we spent the most time studying that subject since we loved learning about it!  And when we discover that innate desire to learn about a subject, the teacher’s job shifts from teaching a subject at students to guiding a student through the life of that subject.

Life is an honest teacher.  It uses many big and small teachers to help guide us through and grow us as human beings.  This virus is one of life’s teachers.  What’s fascinating is that this teacher is guiding us through several subjects at the same time!  We are learning about the teacher itself with all the medical studies being done.  We are learning about our families by spending more quality time with one another.  Those of us that have lost loved ones are realizing that we only have a limited time to spend precious moments and creating lasting memories with spouses, children, and parents.

When would we ever get an opportunity to spend so much time with the people we love?  How about our first-responders that do not get the opportunity to embrace their children?  Again, fear is a guide towards love.  Our first-responders are afraid of bringing the virus home with them because they love their families so deeply that they could not bear the thought of accidently infecting them.  Their families are precious.  As is everyone’s family.  So they voluntarily keep their families safe through self-quarantine.  They love and miss their families more than any of us could imagine!  As a result, I see so much beauty in the gratitude flowing from perfect strangers at home towards our first-responders for their self-sacrifice.

Our Miracle

We are, in essence, walking with the people of Moses.  Though we may not realize it, we are walking through a miracle inside the chaos this virus created.  We are scattered and scared and trying to make sense of all the random pieces of information and what impact this could have on our lives.  So we pray for a miracle, perhaps not realizing that we are witnessing small but powerful miracles every single day!  We are growing our understanding of what love means to us.  Love now has greater depth and broader horizons!

Therefore I choose to be grateful towards this teacher.  Because our new-found understanding of love and the impact it leaves on this world will far outlast its teacher.