“Happy Resurrection from Fear to Love, from grief to joy, from ego to Field, from separation to Unity. You are Loved and kept in the Light.” —Rev. Dr. Kenneth Wheaton, Ph.D.
Reading back over posts like this one written during our first pandemic Easter, the person who wrote this (me) seemed so naive. None of us could really predict how it all would go down. And most of us couldn’t imagine we’d surpass the first anniversary and be observing our second Easter in social isolation. But, here we are. And here is what I wrote last year:
These are times of darkness. Of fear. With the coronavirus pandemic, we’re still awaiting a resurrection.* But, these are also times of bright light. Of resilience, beauty, love, hope.
Do you daydream of what you will do when this is over? I do. I fantasize running into the streets, shopping for necessities and then seeing the many people I love and hugging and kissing them with messy tears flowing. I’ve realized how much I’ve taken for granted. I know I’m not alone. I’ve realized how little I can spend. How much I can make with little. How much I can simply make do. The value, gift and treasure of silence. The salve of creativity. The value of a phone call to a friend.
For many, if not most of us, it took our societal systems shutting down to make us realize these things. One form of resurrection will come when we have beaten back this virus. Another form will come if we learn from this sequestration. Will we transfer the lessons of unity, community, of how little materialism really matters?
While there is great tragedy in the world right now, and more than ever, *blatant* inequities, we are also gifted many opportunities—of how we spend our time, (no shaming,) to go within—examine our shadow selves, be silent; to transform old ways. I can’t say it better than my spiritual mentor, the shaman with whom I worked with for five years last decade. He emailed the italicized quote—his words, above—the first Easter we worked together. They’ve never been more poignant than right now:
This is opportunity to transform fear to love;
To transform the grief of our life losses into joy;
To transmute from a place of ego to the field of community, to the field that is the divine, the great non-egoic silence of the universal energy-one-presence;
You (we) are loved.
We are kept in the Light. We are light. The light is within. (Sometimes we’ve forgotten it.)
*Resurrection is used here in the figurative, broader sense than in the Christian meaning
2021 Update: Friends, the blog is quiet these days because I’m working on a book with the intended publication date being this fall. I intend to sporadically share mostly art. One of the many gifts this time of social isolation delivered to me was the opportunity to finally, after 40 years, reconnect with my visual art. And, actually, that didn’t happen until this year. I’ve hashtagged the year #Create2021 My art, Grace’s art, and a book. Stay tuned. And if you’ve never filled out the form below to be on my mailing list, hey, babe, now’s the time! —xxL
