Covid Series: The World Needs More Love

Guest Writer: Emily Boone, North Carolina

I am quarantined at my house with my two roommates. 

This home is my sacred space. It has felt comforting, grounding, and humbling to spend more time amongst these walls and this little slice of the world.  It is filled with toys, plants, art tools, and the potential for activity. We also have a large yard and a spunky pup! 

My roommates are wonderful, creative, and supportive individuals and I feel lucky to “have” more time to spend with them. We have been enjoying many live streams from some of our favorite music artists and practicing our arts. I have been gifted with an opportunity to spend more time tending to this home through cleaning, planting, creating, and connecting. My life amongst these walls is better than it ever has been and I am so very grateful for that. 

When everything went south the first week, and businesses started cutting back, my partner had been staying here. However, after some discussion it was decided he should quarantine at his house, due to his underlying health issues.  This decision stemmed from the fact one of my roommates is in school to be a nurse and is frequently going to a hospital, so the likelihood of him coming in contact with the virus is higher. 

My daily life has been impacted pretty heavily. I have not worked in weeks, I am not going to shows, I am not going out to bars, I do not get to see my partner often, I do not get to touch my partner, I am washing my hands more, I am raising my conscious shopping game (although I was pretty good about that prior to this), and I am focusing on my growth most hours and days.

To sum it up- I am thriving. 

Never before have I been given this type of opportunity; where exterior stimulation is mitigated, the pressure of working comes to a halt, and I am called to focus on that which is within my home and myself.

I feel motivated to take this time to dive deeper in the depths of my soul and allow some of the seeds I’ve been sowing to blossom and grow.

I was growing tired of going to the bars, seeing the same music, conversing with the same people I did not really want to talk to anyways, and pressuring myself to always push further. I was getting run-down by a fast-paced life.  I am realizing so many habits and behaviors that had become routine and were not serving me in a way that aligned with where I currently want to be. 

Yes, I feel financial insecurity and I feel unsure about what is going to happen to humanity through these times. However, I am comforted in the fact so many other individuals, across the entire globe, are experiencing these same feelings.

To say the least, it is powerful.

To be noted, I do understand I am in a place of privilege as I have been saving money which makes that part less stressful, I do live in a wonderful household, and I have resources.

To put it simply, the world needs more love.

We need more love for ourselves, for the planet, for our peers, for those we do not know, for our daily activities, for everything really.

We need to cultivate passionate love within ourselves and then take that as it overflows from our cells and spread it.

In order to do this, we all need to slow down.

We need to remove distractions, blindfolds, walls, and open our eyes to what lies within.

In order to be transparent with what lies within, we must crack ourselves open.

Do not get me wrong, this feels painful much of the time and is accompanied by great feelings of losses of identity, despair, and uncertainty- but when did we ever learn when everything was all rainbows and sunshine?

I have found much of my growth comes from the times I am lost, near or at rock bottom, and trying to find a new way. The sunshine comes when I am able to revel in my growth.

I have been imagining what the world would be like if everyone took this time to heal and go inward, to direct our attention to ourselves and what lies beneath- and that possibility moves mountains within me.

So yes, this is a time of uncertainty, great change, crumbling, revelations, and all around madness. However, I believe if we find the calm within ourselves amongst all the madness, we will see great change in the collective upon us.

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