The Gifts From Covid19

In my last blog I mentioned that I was going to meet with my Spiritual Director. In the course of our conversation I said, almost flippantly, “Well, I guess that is the gift of Covid.” Being the good and insightful listener that she is, she circled back to that comment and said it back to me with the question – “What have been that gifts that have come to you during Covid?” Harrumph – I hate it when my own words come back to challenge me.

When I said those words I was being a bit ironic. I said that it was “a gift” that I now had time to confront my grief and sort through my emotions regarding loss and the death of my husband. It was a “gift” that I had time and space to go deeper into that pit of sorrow as all my busy work (and avoidance tactics) was put on hold, the running to visits and shows and activities was stopped and I had nothing to do but plunge into the feelings I have held at bay for so long. It is hard soul work but healing in the long run.

Ever since that conversation I have been thinking about that verbal challenge. What have been some gifts from this time period we have come to call Covid? In a conversation yesterday a friend mentioned the loss of the illusion that we know everything. This was in reference to the shifting science around the virus. What we heard about the virus in the beginning has shifted and changed. Don’t wear masks, Do wear masks. The virus will stay on paper and objects for 72 hours. It may or may not linger on products that long. The science is changing and even the experts have had to rethink proper protocols. We have lived for so long with the illusion that we know things and that science and research can give us answers to everything. A gift of Covid is the reminder that we are human with limited understanding and we are not in perfect control of everything.

There have been many disappointments as people miss large family events and travel plans were cancelled. There have been genuine hardships as businesses falter and people lose needed income. But there has also been quality time with those we love. We have learned creative ways to communicate and some of us have conquered the steep learning of technology! And of course the less hectic pace of doing has been replaced by the valued sense of being.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” A gift from Covid has been the enforcement to be still and in the stillness we can, if we let ourselves, be open to the deep reality of God within. What a gift.