| Lean in. That’s a word we’ve been hearing a lot lately, specifically in reference to leaning into our work, purpose, and people. Then COVID-19 happened, and our world has been turned upside down as we are asked to pause and stay home. We’re watching our community come to a halt as we wonder, “What does this mean? Our work? Our business? Our economy? What about our elderly, sick and suffering? What about our front line, essential workers? Will they be okay? Will WE be okay?” The rabbit hole these questions can take us down are scary, yet real. What are we supposed to do? How do we handle this uncertainty? These emotions? This pause in life? I don’t know. I don’t think any of us do. We’ve never been here before. This time we’re walking together. Mourning together, learning together, and, most of all, having to lean in, listen, and trust together. I’m reminded of these words…Lean in and kneel down. Kneel down, lean in. These are the only words that seem to make any sense to me. Even if we weren’t quarantined, many of us would not be able to kneel down and lean in together. Yet, we can do this from our home, and if not from our house, we can kneel down and lean in from our hearts. Let’s kneel and lean into surrendering the control we want to have. As I write this I know this is a hard one. Right now there’s not much we can control except how we respond and react. Can we kneel and lean into how we’re responding and reacting? Each day we are faced with new challenges as we watch and listen to the tragedies that continue to unfold. What would happen if before we reacted, we leaned in asking for guidance on how to respond? Kneeling down and leaning in is the only thing that makes sense. May we kneel and lean into our faith, not our fear. I know it’s not easy. There is so much unknown and it’s all so scary. Pain from the loss of the life and lives we knew is real, and we can’t, nor are we supposed to run from this pain. However, we also can’t let fear paralyze us. We can’t let fear take over our mind and body, making us physically and mentally ill. Now more than ever, fear wants to be in control. Fear tells us to numb out. Food, booze, drugs, over-exercising, too much screen time, the list goes on. The way we humans cope with the uncomfortable might look different from person to person, but make no mistake, everyone has their thing. We can’t let fear control us, we need you, you need us. If you’ve been numbing out to deal with how hard and uncomfortable all of this is, reach out to someone for support. We can start kneeling down and leaning into listening. Really listening to each other. Not for our own agenda or just enough so we can share our own opinions. Can we try to hear what we are saying? It’s going to take a little more humility, empathy, and understanding than we’re used to. Maybe it will be through our hearing that our healing can begin. After all, aren’t we all hurting? There’s more to write; however, I want to do this together. Can we start kneeling down and leaning in for each other? |