“Love is weaving the pattern” - I resonate deeply with this whole piece. I found the 2020/2021 experience to be one of the most powerful catalysts for tuning in to my own sense of what was right for me, what I truly believe, know, and trust about life, myself, my body.
Love is grocery shopping for your elderly mother to keep her safe. Love is washing those groceries in bleach with a prayer when the fear is dialed to 11. Love is begging her not to take the "experimental" vaccine.
Love is caring for her as she fades away with turbo cancer after her booster. Love is never asking her why she didn't listen.
Love is not an experimental vaccine or quarantine.
Agree….Love Is….sometimes painful….fully accepting another’s reality while living a very different sense of what Is or could be, honoring another’s process while honoring our own…Love Is, vast, spacious, beyond words while also being so very present in the minute details of everyday care as your mother completes her path her way. Blessings of all present Love and Grace during this tender time Gawain…
Sorry but I don’t agree. Sometimes, it’s better to stay away from people we love if we have, say, bubonic plague. Or even if we might have bubonic plague. In that case it would be most loving to wall ourselves up in our house away from strangers and loved ones, rather than hugging them close. I just don’t see what your piece proves. Long Covid is raging through our societies and still disabling people, and while measures that attempted to prevent that happening did indeed turn out to be fairly pointless, they weren’t about fear and not love — they were attempting to be pragmatic. Sometimes love needs to be tempered by wisdom. Sometimes we need to play the long game. Sometimes, even then, we are wrong. But kissing someone when you have a virus is definitely unwise
I don't think I entirely disagree with you. As I see it, there is wisdom in staying home when contagious. But our measures and mandates went far, far beyond "stay home when you're sick." Everyone was *possibly* contagious and therefore to be avoided whenever possible, by order of government authority. That seemed pragmatic to me when there was some real possibility of containing outbreaks, driving a novel virus extinct, but beyond that point (say, April 2020) it felt like a collective fear response - especially when we had countries like Sweden bucking the trend and still faring OK health-wise.
I also feel that it is an act of love to *choose* to be with someone who is sick, to accept the possibility of illness and death willingly in order to offer care and to be present. Love is all about mutuality. Those who are immunocompromised deserve accommodations - home delivery, an ability to choose friends and social spaces where everyone takes similar precautions. Others should be free to choose to gather, to willingly and mutually accept risks. And the more exposure and immunity builds in the general population, the safer the sheltering immunocompromised folks will be in emerging from their cocoons. And yet somehow the credentialed epidemiologists who proposed this approach were attacked, slandered, and silenced.
My nephew was constantly told that he could kill his grandmother and otners if he got too close. Even visited the house. This was i think from when he was five at least until eight? I'm sure that any time he got too near someone he was a potential murderer has nothing to do with the crippling social anxiety. And my mom? His grandmother? She wanted terribly to see her only grandson. It was so very worth the risk But no, son, you could kill nanny! So he lost four years of his childhood, and so did she, even tho she lived 15 min dive away. There is nothing loving about acting out of such fear, so 'we cohld be safe'.
We are not safe. The kids are def, absolutely not OK. But me can sill love and be loved is return!
“Love is weaving the pattern” - I resonate deeply with this whole piece. I found the 2020/2021 experience to be one of the most powerful catalysts for tuning in to my own sense of what was right for me, what I truly believe, know, and trust about life, myself, my body.
Agreed, love is.
Love is grocery shopping for your elderly mother to keep her safe. Love is washing those groceries in bleach with a prayer when the fear is dialed to 11. Love is begging her not to take the "experimental" vaccine.
Love is caring for her as she fades away with turbo cancer after her booster. Love is never asking her why she didn't listen.
Love is not an experimental vaccine or quarantine.
Love is...painful sometimes.
Gawain
Agree….Love Is….sometimes painful….fully accepting another’s reality while living a very different sense of what Is or could be, honoring another’s process while honoring our own…Love Is, vast, spacious, beyond words while also being so very present in the minute details of everyday care as your mother completes her path her way. Blessings of all present Love and Grace during this tender time Gawain…
Y, it sure is!
Sorry but I don’t agree. Sometimes, it’s better to stay away from people we love if we have, say, bubonic plague. Or even if we might have bubonic plague. In that case it would be most loving to wall ourselves up in our house away from strangers and loved ones, rather than hugging them close. I just don’t see what your piece proves. Long Covid is raging through our societies and still disabling people, and while measures that attempted to prevent that happening did indeed turn out to be fairly pointless, they weren’t about fear and not love — they were attempting to be pragmatic. Sometimes love needs to be tempered by wisdom. Sometimes we need to play the long game. Sometimes, even then, we are wrong. But kissing someone when you have a virus is definitely unwise
I don't think I entirely disagree with you. As I see it, there is wisdom in staying home when contagious. But our measures and mandates went far, far beyond "stay home when you're sick." Everyone was *possibly* contagious and therefore to be avoided whenever possible, by order of government authority. That seemed pragmatic to me when there was some real possibility of containing outbreaks, driving a novel virus extinct, but beyond that point (say, April 2020) it felt like a collective fear response - especially when we had countries like Sweden bucking the trend and still faring OK health-wise.
I also feel that it is an act of love to *choose* to be with someone who is sick, to accept the possibility of illness and death willingly in order to offer care and to be present. Love is all about mutuality. Those who are immunocompromised deserve accommodations - home delivery, an ability to choose friends and social spaces where everyone takes similar precautions. Others should be free to choose to gather, to willingly and mutually accept risks. And the more exposure and immunity builds in the general population, the safer the sheltering immunocompromised folks will be in emerging from their cocoons. And yet somehow the credentialed epidemiologists who proposed this approach were attacked, slandered, and silenced.
My nephew was constantly told that he could kill his grandmother and otners if he got too close. Even visited the house. This was i think from when he was five at least until eight? I'm sure that any time he got too near someone he was a potential murderer has nothing to do with the crippling social anxiety. And my mom? His grandmother? She wanted terribly to see her only grandson. It was so very worth the risk But no, son, you could kill nanny! So he lost four years of his childhood, and so did she, even tho she lived 15 min dive away. There is nothing loving about acting out of such fear, so 'we cohld be safe'.
We are not safe. The kids are def, absolutely not OK. But me can sill love and be loved is return!