We are One.

                  We are all in this together.

                                     Let’s support each other.

                                                       Help one another.

                                                                         Look out for your neighbor.

                                                                                          Together we can.

We’ve all heard these phrases so much lately that they have almost become annoying.

In this time of crisis, many organizations and businesses, and even the government are using the above phases to impart to us:

1. their awareness of the seriousness of the current situation;
2. their genuine concern for us
3. hope in the power of our collective efforts, and/or
4. the need to be safe until the uncertainties of the times can become even a little more certain.

These phrases are meant to comfort, calm and inspire us. They are also used to convince us that the ones uttering them have a heart, which should compel us to buy whatever they are selling or saying.

It wasn’t long ago, maybe even just 6 months ago, that if someone uttered any of these phrases in many parts of the country, eye rolling would be the most diplomatic response. More often, the one using these phrases would be labeled woo-woo, new age-y, naïve, or out of touch with reality.

But now these phrases are main-stream. Regardless of whether those using them truly believe them, the fact remains, these phrases are truer than ever. We need to embrace what they mean, and embody and activate ourselves to really live these phrases, or at least try.

We are again faced with a crisis that is forcing us to endure similar hardships and sacrifices across many communities, forcing us to be more aware of the world around us, even as we are told to stay home and keep our distance from one another. It is hard to ignore the facts of what we ALL are going through.

Some are experiencing greater struggles, but all of our lives have changed. All of us have had to make some very uncomfortable adjustments and even devastating changes. For all of us the world has changed and whatever it may look like afterwards there will never be a time without what we know, and what we are learning and experiencing today.

My hope is that the efforts of today to live into many of the above phrases will indeed cause us to realize the deep “T” Truth of them, and to make changes in our lives that exemplify them. So that when this crisis has subsided, the divisions that have permeated our world will be diminished. In that diminishing, a momentum will be created that cannot help but rewire our hearts, minds and values to greater wholeness and connection that lifts all of us up, in times of struggle and in times of celebration.

May the lessons of this time illustrate to us the resilience we have in order to recover from this crisis and to change the way we understand ourselves, our responsibility to ourselves and others, and the reality that we really are all in this together. It is together that we will remain. Together we will be able to live through anything.