A VIRTUAL SIT

Well, a few members of our sitting group joined in with our experiment yesterday, and their emailed responses suggest that it was at least the start of a great idea. There were a couple of suggestions, too, as to how it could be more skillfully done, by using a program like Zoom or setting up a Facebook Room. I have no idea how either of these work, but am committed to investigating further.

We humans need connection. As a life-long writer, I am used to the experience of solitude. I need that, too, and feel comfortable with the isolation that is universally recommended at a time when the coronavirus rules the world. One welcome and perhaps paradoxical side effect of isolation, however, is the increasing awareness of the need for connection, and we are fortunate to have devised the means to make it possible, remotely, through online communications like this one.

I have also noticed in myself a greater desire to be in touch with family and old friends, and have been reaching out with emails and telephone calls, some of them to people with whom I have been out of touch for a long while.

It was a long time ago that I learned the concept of the "gift wrapped in shit." I even forget who it was that introduced me to the phrase, but I used it often, back then, to describe that other cliche, the silver lining that can accompany even the darkest of clouds. We have been handed, in this virus, the ultimate gift wrapped in shit. No matter how unwelcome the opportunity it affords us, we are left with the obligation to use it with consciousness, skillfulness, and compassion.