The Power of Love and Grace Through the Troubling Times of Covid19

In these troubling, unprecedented times, we may feel scared, anxious, worried, grief stricken and/or overwhelmed. As I have personally cycled through all of these feelings and hear from others feeling the same, I’ve been thinking a great about what energies can support us as we cope with these very real and natural emotional responses. As I’ve meditated and reflected on it, what continues to come to me is the power of love and grace to provide us with the resilience to survive these times.

Know that I send all of you, each of you who has crossed my path in any way, great love for this journey, love to fill you when you are scared, love for when you or someone you love has lost a job or income, love for when you may have lost a loved one to this virus, love for when you become overwhelmed at all the suffering and uncertainty. Love reaches through time, distance and space. Know I love you and pray for you to have every single inner and external resource you need through these times. Love does not magically solve the practical, overwhelming problems involved in this crisis, bring us needed income or prevent illness, but it does, without a doubt, make the journey so much less harsh, so much softer, so much more bearable.

We can all send love to one another, holding it in our hearts, then sending it as a “waterfall of love” to all who need it. Over the years, when working with animals experiencing various forms of trauma, such as during Hurricane Katrina and California wildfires, I learned that love not only reached them but calmed them tremendously when afraid, anxious, injured, and when they were alone and dying. From the animals, throughout my life, I learned the power of love. We all have this powerful love within us to help ourselves through this pandemic, and to help all beings in the world.

You’ve probably all heard about the resilient Italians who are singing from their balconies, sending love to all who can hear them (in person and on YouTube!). Close to home, my former neighbor in Big Sur, CA, artist Sofanya White, shared an inspiring story in our community email list. She and her next door neighbor went outside and did a “call and response” with their flutes. Sonya describes it:

“My neighbor plays so beautifully and I’m just happy making a nice sound that comes from my Heart. I also got my drum out, then singing bowls. By the time we were through I felt so connected in Love and eased into a sitting Meditation. Feel free to join on Sundays at 3pm. It will be wonderful to know others are in this all at the same time….for as short or long time as you feel it but try to give it enough time to let go and feel the fervent Love in your Heart come forth in the Prayers of Healing.”

And so, I extend her invitation to all of you to join us, from your homes anywhere on earth, every Sunday at 3pm your time, to express your love for all beings with singing, playing instruments, dancing or playing any recorded music—for five minutes or for 60 minutes, until your heart is filled with love—for your own heart, and overflowing to the world.

Because I cannot sing (even my cats leave the room when I occasionally sing along with a recording!), I’ll be playing the following songs every Sunday at 3pm, perhaps a few times each. When I came across the first two on Facebook I cried such happy tears, feeling the love of the little six year old singing I Wish You Love and the love of the quarantined Berklee College of music students sending love around the world dancing to and singing Love Sweet Love (spoiler alert: watch for the cat early in the video!).

I will also be playing a version of Amazing Grace with humpback whale song, which I played for many years for the whales I swam with in Silver Bank. Every evening at sunset, we (the group of humans who were with the whales that day) would play this song as our prayer of thanks to the whales for choosing to come to be with us in the water. Almost every evening as we played this song for them, whales would appear on the surface, hearing the call of our hearts through this music. The love we felt from them as we shared the musical prayer was as mystical and heart-filling as it was being right next to them in the water.

Humpback whales bring a grace to the world, both physically and spiritually, that is, in my opinion, unsurpassed. Right now, there are whales in the spirit realm helping the earth and humans during this crisis. If you would like their help and support, just reach out and ask for it. They will come. Listening to this music may help you feel connected with them. Whether you feel them or hear them or not, they will come if you ask for their support. Allow them to surround you with their grace.

I will also be chanting Long Time Sun for all beings who are dying alone, without loved ones near them, and for all the souls who have left the earth due to this virus. I will chant it also in honor of their grieving loved ones. The animals have shown me time and again that no one dies alone, that there are always spiritual beings who come to be with every single being on earth who dies, to bring great calm, comfort and love as they escort them from earth to the spirit realm. While I believe this, I also think that as a fellow living being on earth, it is so very important to reach out when we know those who are dying have no one here, on the earth side, to hold their hand, to stroke their brow and kiss their forehead as their bodies prepare to die and their spirits prepare to leave. We can send the energy of all of that from our hearts, so they are not truly alone. This chant helps me to do that.

When we send love to others who are suffering–or even think about their physical or emotional suffering–it is easy to feel overwhelmed and grief stricken. Highly sensitive people feel this even more keenly. While this is completely natural, we can prevent our own feelings from getting in the way of helping others by making a clear and strong intention to temporarily put aside all of our own feelings of grief, stress or overwhelm during those minutes when we are helping others. Whoever we may pray to, whatever divine sources we may believe in, we can ask them to “hold” our upset for us, then assist us with it after we return from helping others. I do this regularly when helping my clients in my private practice. I have my own dramas, crises and upsets just like everyone else, and knowing that the energies of these can get in the way of my being clear, strong and ready to serve my clients, I ask my spiritual guides to hold them for me during my consultations. Afterwards, I continue to ask for their help for me. This is a dance of helping and healing we can all do–helping others and helping ourselves.

May you all be safe and at peace.
May our brave and devoted first responders and medical personnel, and all those who continue to work to make sure that humans and animals have food and needed supplies available and delivered, also be safe and at peace.
May every being on earth be surrounded by love and grace.

Extra love sent to all of your animals!

And if it feels right to you, join in the musical form of sending love each Sunday at 3pm your time ~

Note: Please excuse any typos or other mistakes in this article. It was sent without the expert help of my proofer.