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Daily Question, December 10

What is this time of social-distancing revealing to me?

  • Malag

    I like working from home

  • Nicki
    As someone who is okay spending a lot of time alone and having a few rather than many connections, less social gathering left me feeling calmer and less anxious, more myself. Not being able to dash to the store every time I think of something I need has made me better at making do with what I have, stretching ingredients to last longer, and making sure I use up or freeze/preserve things rather than letting them waste away in the refrigerator. Thereby, it revealed to me how much I had been ...

    As someone who is okay spending a lot of time alone and having a few rather than many connections, less social gathering left me feeling calmer and less anxious, more myself.

    Not being able to dash to the store every time I think of something I need has made me better at making do with what I have, stretching ingredients to last longer, and making sure I use up or freeze/preserve things rather than letting them waste away in the refrigerator. Thereby, it revealed to me how much I had been wasting.

    Walking the same few paths again and again close to my home rather than traveling for hikes and excursions revealed how much there is to notice right at my fingertips. I like to hunt for wildflowers, especially the spring ephemerals, and I found so many growing in a little patch of woods near my house – rue and wood anemones, bloodroot, cutleaf toothwort, putty root orchid. These are, of course, common forest flowers, but while I always notice them and even seek them out on hikes, I realized that I’d overlooked them on the everyday paths closest to my home.

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  • Blossom

    I was forced to SLOW way down. Even with the ups and downs, I have been enjoying my life and learning how to experience the moment. I miss my family and friends immensely, but I was missing me before this and didn’t even realize it. This has been a good experience for me.

  • dcdeb

    How easily people can be controlled without knowing what they are doing has any validity.

  • Don Jones

    The importance of a strong immune system – which points to good nutrition – which points to healthy food – which points to healthy soils full of micronutrients – which points to conscious care for our environment.

  • Nelson

    Doing brunch on Zoom with your besties isn’t as fun as if you were in person. I took for granted that energy that just comes from being near someone, look at their faces, and all the non-verbal cues. We meet up in person nowadays but we’re now more mindful of the time we get to share together. We don’t take it for granted.

  • Shashana

    How important my connection to friends and family mean to me. Often I take things for granted. Then something like this happens and I realize the value and loss of those we care about in our lives. How a simple hug can make your day and now its a wave. I am looking for new ways to connect to people. I am blessed to be willing to look at how I can make changes in my life to be part of this new world and make some small difference each day.

  • Charlie T
    I’m writing this as we approach year two of the global pandemic. Just as I was discovering how important connection was to me, this virus came along and exposed the strata of our society. I’m still trying to keep and grow connections, but once again, I feel I am outside of many circles. The expendable are now re-named “the essential”. Clever. My connections have deepened. It has nothing to do with the pandemic, but in spite of the pandemic. My commitment to reaching out and being hone...

    I’m writing this as we approach year two of the global pandemic.
    Just as I was discovering how important connection was to me, this virus came along and exposed the strata of our society. I’m still trying to keep and grow connections, but once again, I feel I am outside of many circles. The expendable are now re-named “the essential”. Clever. My connections have deepened. It has nothing to do with the pandemic, but in spite of the pandemic. My commitment to reaching out and being honest has been the most rewarding.

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  • Mica

    I feel as if it has aged me a lot. Happily, my kids and granddaughters are all in my bubble – only a few blocks away in different directions – so I am grateful about that and feel wonderfully fortunate.

  • Sarah

    I realise how important family is to me and when my grandson was born and I wasn’t able to visit the family due to Covid restrictions. However I’m grateful that things have changed in the UK and we are now able to see each other more often.

  • Nathan

    The primary thing that comes to mind is that I need people in my life. I was so happy to find a remote job but after a year and a half into it I realized how much I missed human interaction.

  • Carol

    I need to be hugged. I need to give hugs. Social-distancing is maddening to me. My God is bigger than a virus. My time to die was determined by my God way before now and I am not going to waste the days I have left on this earth social distancing because tyrannical government bodies tell me to. Okay, I admit it, I am a rebel.

  • Ed Schulte
    IT IS A TIME OF “COVID – 19 ” , not just a time of social distancing. COVID – 19 can be see as a wake-up call …wake up to the true gift of what it means to be a “Human Being” and put loving value to ‘the Season’ when the Word “Christ” and “Christianity” will be used a lot. COVID-19 presents the opportunity to awaken their meaning not just as outer images to be hung on a wall or represent a gathering in a structure made of wood and stones …..BUT….. experience it as a...

    IT IS A TIME OF “COVID – 19 ” , not just a time of social distancing. COVID – 19 can be see as a wake-up call …wake up to the true gift of what it means to be a “Human Being” and put loving value to ‘the Season’ when the Word “Christ” and “Christianity” will be used a lot. COVID-19 presents the opportunity to awaken their meaning not just as outer images to be hung on a wall or represent a gathering in a structure made of wood and stones …..BUT….. experience it as a Rosy-red light emanating from each etheric heart acting in accordance with the power of the truth of the one any only commandment Joshua Emmanuel gave, “Love Thy neighbour as thy self”. The meaning behind the original word ( Greek ) “Christos” ( known long before 2000 years ago ) implies “look after each other, love each other, no matter how far apart, because all we truly have IS each other”. The distance between…is not the key to humanities connection to one another, True Love / Divine Love / has no need for Distance or time.

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  • Javier Visionquest

    I wish I’d done this years ago!

  • Mary Pat
    So many things! When it started, almost two years ago, I wrote down what came to me in a meditation; look at your life. pick up what you want to keep with you now, leave the rest and go through the door of your new life. It took me all that time to do that, and I am still working. on some of it. As I sift through things, I am still “cleaning out closets”, and soon will start on the drawers. It is all physical and also psychological for me. I have even found things a shelf at a time in a cupb...

    So many things! When it started, almost two years ago, I wrote down what came to me in a meditation; look at your life. pick up what you want to keep with you now, leave the rest and go through the door of your new life.
    It took me all that time to do that, and I am still working. on some of it. As I sift through things, I am still “cleaning out closets”, and soon will start on the drawers. It is all physical and also psychological for me. I have even found things a shelf at a time in a cupboard that all of a sudden feel like they need sorting, and I will do it. The feeling when I am finished is relief and a letting go of something I have outgrown. It is wonderful! I also discovered a sense of panic when we were feeling safe this past summer….because I wasn’t finished. But then I realized it is OK to continue on. Just because others are ready to “re-enter” doesn’t mean I have to yet….it has been wonderful….
    I have the ability to be social when I wish, as I live in a neighborhood that is very social and it is built like a condo development. In the past, that has been too social for me, but now it is great! AND all the Zoom meetings and services are fantastic! My meditation group, both book clubs, and all my church activities are all on Zoom. I love it! If I want to, when the weather is good, I can just go out the door and the Open Space is within a five minute walk. I am enjoying this very much. I have been doing really well.

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  • Maurice Frank

    My need to balance activity and rest with solitude. I’m more balanced now than before.

  • DeVonna

    I appreciate the priviledge of living in community better. When we are denied a thing, like gathering for worship, it made me realize how much it fed and encouraged me to be with others of like faith. Now, keeping our distance for safety sake, or looking into someone’s eyes because the rest of their face is covered, it makes me appreciate just being with another human being.

    • Ed Schulte

      That is a very valuable result isn’t it …..the dreaded masks have reawakened the importance of eye contact over all other facial expressions …..I noted from the beginning that young children were not deterred by the mask …they smiled at the smiles behind the masks, no hesitation, for me it became a fun thing to experience them this way.

  • Marnie Jackson

    The power of connection and who matters most

  • Kevin
    (Seems like today’s question and many of the responses are from last year….an unintended glitch in this platform. But, since we’re all still dealing with the effects of Covid in various ways, the question itself is still relevant even a year later.) The precautions and restrictions set in place as measures to protect us from either contracting Covid 19 or spreading it to other people have also highlighted our fundamental need as human beings to be among one another to socialize, or, to ju...

    (Seems like today’s question and many of the responses are from last year….an unintended glitch in this platform. But, since we’re all still dealing with the effects of Covid in various ways, the question itself is still relevant even a year later.)

    The precautions and restrictions set in place as measures to protect us from either contracting Covid 19 or spreading it to other people have also highlighted our fundamental need as human beings to be among one another to socialize, or, to just be near to where people are gathered, period. Data is beginning to reveal that forced isolation over an extended period of time can be unhealthy and detrimental to a person’s life. Scientifically, we’ve known this for eons. But now, every day people the world over are experiencing the potentially damaging effects of extended isolation on the human body and psyche.

    Personally, I’m still 100% “in,” and my mask is on where advised, if doing so will help to keep me and my neighbors safer, as attempts continue for us, globally, to eradicate this pandemic.

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    • Michele

      I noticed that too and didn’t bother with answering. I saw 27 responses at 430am and noticed it was from last year. Sad this pandemic is still on going.

    • Mica

      Thanks for pointing that out, Kevin – such fun to compare my 2 answers. Warm wishes to you –

  • sunnypatti
    When I read the question before clicking the link to get in, I thought, "we aren't really social-distancing anymore." And then I came in and saw answers from last year, and also that I didn't answer this one at all. While we did social distance last year, the industry I am in kept me from social distancing 40-45 hours a week. All of my friends social distanced, but that wasn't a big deal to me because my husband & I had just moved to the country which social distanced us from pretty much...

    When I read the question before clicking the link to get in, I thought, “we aren’t really social-distancing anymore.” And then I came in and saw answers from last year, and also that I didn’t answer this one at all.

    While we did social distance last year, the industry I am in kept me from social distancing 40-45 hours a week. All of my friends social distanced, but that wasn’t a big deal to me because my husband & I had just moved to the country which social distanced us from pretty much everyone! It was a weird time, though, and it still is. Being the people-person that I am, I haven’t liked any of this, but I’m grateful my job kept me in touch with humans on a daily basis. Things are somewhat normal where I live, as people go shopping, out to eat, to concerts, etc., but I still have to wear a mask at work (which is fine, even though I honestly hate it), and I can’t wait for some real normalcy to return.

    I guess what social distancing revealed to me is what I already knew – I love people, love seeing and talking with them, and know how important it is for my well being.

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