Relephant read: Elephant’s Continually updated Coronavirus Diary. ~ Waylon

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I read things everywhere about how I should make the most of this time.

I should read. I should exercise. I should be doing this online course that I have always dreamt of.

Definitely, I should be using this time intelligently. I should be building for my future now.

But the truth is, I can’t always be that way—and I don’t even think that would be the right path.

I am a “spiritual” woman. I appreciate aloneness. I don’t crave constant external attention or to be looked at.

I read everywhere that it’s good to be brought inward as many of us have seemingly been forced into now—that inward, we find the truth about who we are when distractions are inaccessible. I have read, too, that we who are already “evolved” don’t need to seek more than we have, and that all of us must always find joy where we are.

But you see, I don’t see all the things that we were doing before as “distractions.”

I have always struggled with the disembodied ideas of spirituality—those voices that we hear that speak only about attending retreats, developing one’s intuition from home, or “fully healing” before coming back to the world with other souls.

Spirituality isn’t only about going to higher realms and truths, manifesting our own, personal next steps, or doing sacred guided meditations at home. Spirituality is the way that one lives their days, the way one connects with another, the way that we take care of our families, and our communities. It is the way that we date, the way that we make love, and how we break up.

I believe in a spirituality that’s embodied—that uses its wisdom, knowledge, and principles to connect with others in the highest way, and takes its full role in our human, tangible, non-new agey world.

Meeting friends can be spiritual. It’s how we spread our love and our message, how we help the ones who we care for, how we all offer mirroring views and thoughts to one another.

Travelling is spiritual. I miss my airports, my planes, and this feeling that one has when landing somewhere uncharted and fresh, where everything could be possible. There is a lot of power in adapting to new territories, in meeting new people, in creating one’s network, and in widening one’s understanding of the world by being elsewhere and seeing what it means to be human on the other side of the world.

Going out is not “unspiritual” or profane.

And when we take this “self only” view of spirituality, there is something there that we may miss:

What’s happening right now behind our own closed doors—that space where we are able to make the most of this extra time by strengthening our artistic practises, or our knowledge in the areas we wish to develop—isn’t that simple for others.

I would like to get closer to the truth of our current daily lives.

Some are subjected to being in close quarters with their abusers. Some are experiencing deep feelings of aloneness, as the world ceases to make sense to them anymore.

Not everybody had mastered, beforehand, ways to cope with emotional stress, uncertainty, lack of closeness, loneliness or ways to cope with being trapped with other individuals who don’t have their highest good at heart.

I would like to bow to these people through this post.

Not those who wonder if they should read, ecstatically dance, listen to music, or garden, but those who are now, as we speak, experiencing deep emotional distress, despair, or fear.

I bow to those who are locked in with one or several beings who can’t offer the basic respect that they need. To those who feel ignored, but have to stay there—trapped in quarantine—because this is what we are all being told to do.

I would like to send my prayers, love, and thoughts to all the people who are in quarantine within homes where there is neglect, emotional or physical abuse, lack of basic human compassion, and fear.

I would like to ask this question to everyone reading this post:

What is our response to that? What is the help that we, who consider ourselves to be spiritual and evolved, are providing?

I read everywhere that this moment is so powerful, because never before have we been allowed to come back to ourselves to this level without the interference of the world and external noise. But what about looking out for the people who have been taught to remain silent in their suffering or abuse—to not make noise?

Would you believe with me that our “spirituality” could also be about reaching out to friends? Even the ones we haven’t spoken to in a while? Could we check on one another—even strangers?

I take walks daily. It’s pretty and beautiful. I see families hanging out. Father, mother, and kids. It feels lovely and fresh. They play, walk, and talk. But what is happening in the homes of the people we don’t see?

And I read also about strengthening business during this time. I see the questions: how can we reach more potential clients, readers, and followers? How can we make the most of this time to serve our own interests and goals? Strangely, this is what I’ve seen some “spiritual teachers” do—try to reap the rewards of others’ suffering to benefit themselves in this time.

Is that spiritual, really?

What could be spiritual to me is to think a little less about my own goals and success, and to reach out, communicate, and care more about the state of others—to find a greater balance between trying to serve my own interests (which is understandable, and human) and the greater good of humanity.

So, too, I ask you this:

>> Which community could you serve more, now?
>> Which of your people could you check on more often?
>> Which small producers around you could you patronize to help them remain strong?
>> How could you use this time to become a better human?

No, these questions will not help us to become a better new-agey guru. But they can help us to become, simply, a better human.