People have choices to make during this time of physical distancing. Naomi Garcia chooses to go to her window to experience an early-morning time of discovery and rest.
NAOMI GARCIA
staff for change, systems, conflict…4 good’
Early recommendations for USAers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended the cancelation or postponement of in-person events. I learned from historians that this official strategy of physical distancing first appeared in records of the plague in the 1300s. In our era of social media to call it ‘social distancing’ is inaccurate and misleading.
The earliest limit on the number of people the CDC encouraged was of 200 people. Not long after, I read 50 people. Then the distance was revised to 10 people … as long as participants kept a distance of at least 10 feet, or about a meter, apart.
The part that got my attention was the early speculation of needing these measures for eight weeks or, at that time, through early May. Next, the educated predictions of people-who-know-about-these-things rallied toward agreement along an 18-month duration.
Imagining this distancing standard continuing through this summer, through next fall, through next winter, through next spring, through the next summer and into the fall … 2021! took my brain to overheating; my soul searching for certainty of spontaneity.
The three photos taken on my smartphone describe what’s happening for me better than my words. My comings and goings pre-COVID-19 included the usual stunning sunrises to the east. In the first week of the 2020 distancing standard and self-imposed quarantine, the core of my introverted self sighed with anticipated relief. The quiet, early mornings drew me to sitting as close to wide-open windows as I could manage. Watching from just before the break of dawn, familiar and unfamiliar shadows become clearly distinct from one another.
Every time I start my days with my window-lens, I re-discover a rest and a breath-restoring delight in the evolving view, just like I did and still do in all the familiar and far-from-ordinary stunning creations of the Creator.
That same Creator is the Same 1 who presents in-the-moment opportunities of choice. Our Wesleyan understanding of The Great Spirit primes us for these on-going expressions of free will. I’m convinced this is our superpower of humanity. In-the-moment, will I choose the ways of anxiety contagions? Or ways of Life, Rest, Spirit? I wonder what you choose in this moment? In this moment? Or this moment…?
Last Updated on September 20, 2022