Where does love go
in time of global panic,
when business as usual
is disrupted by uncertainty
and the fear that underwrites
things that feel out of control?

Maybe some of it goes underground
or floats somewhere above the clouds–
during hard times, it feels like certain expressions
of love get packed away in a closet for later,
a day when things don’t feel quite so hard,
a day when the world calms down.

But then, when you look closer, you see other
versions of love showing up — in the six feet between
you and your neighbor, in the way you leave
some extra bags of rice on the shelf, in
the patience you practice when the house
feels too full of energy that is usually
directed elsewhere on a weekday.

Love in a time of pandemic
is the same love it’s always been –
but it wants to show up
in new ways
through all,
for all,
adaptable,
and unceasing.

When the unexpected
gets dropped at your doorstep,
may you honor the enormity

of what that means
while allowing the
anxiety or fear or pain or grief

that comes with it
to sit next to whatever
solace means to you right now.

Let the hard things
keep company
with what’s still good.

Because what if even the unexpected
comes with an opportunity
to practice peace?

I see your humanness
and offer you mine
and together we walk
side by side,
imperfect, but together.

Sometimes there is limping,
or one of us has to be carried
but when we take turns
it works out okay
in the end.

Because along the way
there’s time to celebrate
how beautiful being human can be
when we stop pretending
we don’t need each other.

CWP