Collectively, we are feeling the world as we know it shifting under our feet. For the first time in centuries we’re facing a common threat globally. Personally, I have felt the disequilibrium I think we all share and feel like I sometimes am just not sure how to simply make it through the day.  It’s as hard to avoid the contagion of fear as it is the contagion of the virus.

Parker J. Palmer has an amazing definition of hope — it's

 “to hold in creative tension all that is with all that should and could be and then, every day take some action to narrow the distance between the two.”  

Read that twice…it helps. 

So how do we hold onto hope?  I have always found hope in both sharing and receiving our gifts.  I believe all of us have  gifts of creativity and love. And so I am focusing on how I can give and marveling in the amazing ways others are giving.

My daughter’s voice teacher switched to online voice lessons, but also decided to start online karaoke for all her students.  32 voice students belting out their Broadway hits from their bedrooms. How cool is that?  My amazing gym started live recordings of workouts, and their dedication to our fitness is downright inspiring.  Musician friends started recording a song a day as gifts to the world connecting us all through online watch parties.  And Elin didn’t miss a beat transferring her Ice Flow class to something distantly accessible - SockFlow! 

So, this afternoon I found myself connecting to my breath by sliding around my kitchen in my socks. I just cleared a little floor space (not much is needed actually), put on my fuzzy socks, and focused on my breathing. Elin demonstrates each step and then we all do the step together in whatever way feels comfortable to each of us. And you don't have to be a skater to do it!  I glided and swirled, inhaled and exhaled, laughed and may or may not have tripped over the cat.  

We can’t see what’s coming but we breathe through that. I was reminded again that all is well in this moment.  I gently heard the truth that every exhalation is an invitation to soften, release and let go.

Creativity, whatever form it takes, is less about creating something out of nothing and more about being in relationship and conversation with life and the unknown.

This is the purpose of all gifts  - to carry our grief, our joy, our humanness and our wonder before all that is unknown. 

And the heroes will be all of us, as one.

Here are YouTube links to Eps 1, 2, and 3:

Episode #1

https://youtu.be/GzQqbxn2uSU 

Episode #2

https://youtu.be/ylzqbZ3_8Us

Episode #3

https://youtu.be/OhHpBZ2Idp4

Be well and safe, my friends.