Shocked Into Presence ~ COVID 19

Shocked Into Presence

COVID-19

April 9, 2020

©2020 Karla Johnston, InnerConstellation.com

It has taken three weeks

to bring myself to the page,

attempt this weak

expression of our strange new world.

Here in America predictions are—

numbers will peek Easter Sunday 

and hopefully then, the curve will flatten.

Worldwide cases: over 1.6 million

Deaths: 97,237

USA: 451,491

Deaths: 15,938

USA jobs lost: well over 16 million 

As we wait this out, 

quarantined and socially distanced.

I include the numbers in a search for perspective,

think back in history to the ancestors 

who perhaps like me felt entirely Incapable

of recording the depths, 

lives impacted,

So in mind-numb did not.

I know one True North—compassion:

health care providers, grocery clerks, 

businesses that have retooled production

for ventilators, hand sanitizer, PPE. 

When asked about the many eyes and hands of compassion, 

Master Daowu said, 

“It’s like reaching back in search of a pillow in the night.”

There are two parts of me, one who watches:

numbers climb, economy crash,

And another, Master Daowu, 

who reaches in the dark—

natural,

effortless,

innate,

fearless.