Build a personal foundation of spirit.

In her blogpost “Getting Through This Moment”, Dr. Mindy Fullilove outlines five principles for ‘getting through the disaster’:

This week we turn our attention to #5 – “Build a personal foundation of spirit”

“We need spiritual support in these times. In the aftermath of 9/11, our collective recovery work took us to labyrinths and art sessions, hikes and meditation. On the first anniversary – September 11, 2002 – we spent the afternoon on the stairs at Union Square, sitting in the sun, and taking in the impromptu festival that was unfolding there.

There is spirit everywhere – that is the point of spirit. We need to pause to remember that! We can build our confidence in spirit in many ways. It could be that you choose to darn all the socks in your house, remembering all the places those socks took you and all the places they will take you. It could be that you will practice trumpet, as Doug has been doing, very pleased with the sound he’s been getting. It could be that you want to read War and Peace, as people convened by Yiyun Li are doing. I am taking daily photos of my lilac bush, documenting its coming into bloom. I love this time of year, as I always think of Whitman’s line, “when lilacs last by the dooryard bloom’d.” It reminds me that this time next year I will look back at all the things that I couldn’t see and couldn’t imagine, like this pandemic and who knows what else?

Spirit is one resource that is available to each of us, no matter how rich or poor, sick or well. My teacher, Dr. Michael O. Smith, once told me that anyone could sit on a bench, recognize the harms of addiction, and stop using drugs. He was then working in the South Bronx at the height of the synergistic plagues of disinvestment, crack cocaine, AIDS and poverty.”