After our collective near death experience amidst the death throes of Republican abhorrent disregard for American democracy, CV 19 continues its impartial visitation and infection of friend and foe alike. In recovery circles, the AA slogan “this too shall pass“ comes to mind. This too shall pass is comforting because when trauma or sorrow arise, we realize this sorrow, this tragedy will one day pass away, perhaps later today or tomorrow. What changes is our perspective about it.

This too shall pass applies to all the fun things, too. When this becomes our life philosophy, we can “this too shall pass” ourselves right up to our deathbed, never fully engaging directly with the truth of the moment.

Meditators focus on the changeless and also on the ever-changing aspects of life. Love and God are changeless, all else is impermanent. Meditating in a cemetery is a good place to concentrate on impermanence, and to consciously released the fear of death. My only hesitation about meditating in a cemetery is that my dog Pearl can’t go there with me.

CV 19 brings the belief “time is running out” directly into the question of our mortality. It presupposes a finite end, limitation and an inability to achieve in a linear timeline.

I am learning to live on three planes of consciousness simultaneously. According to Ram Dass, the great spiritual teacher, these three levels are the physical plane, the astral plane and the causal plane, plus that which is beyond the beyond.

Learning to live and balance all that is possible from moment to moment allows for the expansion and inevitable contraction, the ebb and the flow of a multi dimensional existence.

As we await the CV 19 vaccine, a hard lesson will land. Death is real. Illness is real.

Wear a damn mask. OM