Pan 2020 – S. Lynne Marshall

Sometimes when I allow the suffering around me to fully enter my awareness, I just want to cry, and I’ve finally learned to say “that’s okay”. More people are homeless and hungry, children are cooped up, mothers and fathers are faced with parenting challenges they never dreamed of, those in abusive environments lack protection, so many people old and young are dying unnaturally and unexpectedly and without the comfort of family and friends. If you are human at all and you open your heart, how can you not feel the need to mourn for yourself and others. Continue reading “Mom’s Day and Pan 2020: It’s Okay to Cry” →

Pan 2020 (Covid-19)

Pan 2020: Covid-19 Renamed

10/05/202010/05/2020 S. Lynne Marshall

This is the first that I’ve written about the pandemic that started early this year. Until now I couldn’t share my thoughts about how it effects us and how to cope, because I didn’t feel able to use the words that are commonly used in headlines; namely, the term for the beastly germ phenomenon, the particular virus that is rampant. (Indeed, I only wrote the words in the title AFTER this article was finished.) When I see the name of the viral germ repeated over and over again, often accompanied by magnified and colour-enhanced images, I get an emotional reaction that blocks right-mindedness and creates anxiety. Not so much for my own well-being and safety, as for how the messages when presented this way will effect everyone, creating more denial than acceptance, more reaction than response, more fear than love. Continue reading “Pan 2020: Covid-19 Renamed” →