It’s challenging to find outlets for our feelings, thoughts, needs, wants, and wishes when the coronavirus is out there, not letting us live our normal and familiar lives.
Yesterday, my outlets included
- connecting with others, remotely and in person,
- mindfulness exercises, including focusing on the phrases “May I meet this moment fully” and “May I meet this moment as a friend.”
- facilitating two of my Coping and Healing groups online,
- going out for short walks while maintaining social distancing,
- accepting myself and others, exactly as we are,
- looking up, down, and all around,
- enjoying what I have, and
- taking photos.
My outlets also include music and dancing, and Michael and I recently danced to this old R.E.M. tune:
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
R.E.M.
Looking at your watch a third time
Waiting in the station for the bus
Going to a place that’s far
So far away and if that’s not enough
Going where nobody says hello
They don’t talk to anybody they don’t know
You’ll wind up in some factory
That’s full time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house
Sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange but I believe
You’ll be coming back before too long
Don’t go back to Rockville
Don’t go back to Rockville
Don’t go back to Rockville
And waste another year
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend
I don’t care if you’re not here with me
‘Cause it’s so much easier to handle
All my problems if I’m too far out to sea
But something better happen soon
Or it’s gonna be too late to bring you back
When people have an outlet to express themselves (like my Coping and Healing Groups), they’re saying it feels too late to bring ourselves back to where we were before the pandemic and that we might all be wasting another year waiting for this to be over.
How can any year be wasted if we meet each moment fully and as a friend?
What are your outlets, my friends?
Here’s another daily outlet for me: gratitude.
