We are living through difficult times, for sure. I am both aware of being intensely anxious all the time while also having to compartmentalize my own anxiety to help my clients—I am still working the same number of hours via “telehealth” providing therapy.
I have never found my work quite so exhausting as I am finding it right now. Something about my home space being invaded by having to provide counseling from an office in my home. And yet I am lucky because I still have a job. I am lucky because my spouse is currently being paid even though she can’t work. I am lucky because she can be home attempting to homeschool our son. I have clients who are on the front lines, working in grocery stores. I have clients who are scared about whether they will have a job whenever this is over.
There is so much uncertainty, and we are all being told we should fear being close to one another, which means we cannot support each other in the ways we used to.
Here’s a prayer I wrote for this challenging time.
“Litany for Social Distancing”
By Eve Lyons
In this time of pandemic, it’s the hashtag the kids are using
In this time of pandemic, it’s a sign of wealth and privilege.
Bless the person who loads your groceries from the truck to the store.
Bless the person in a factory making us more toilet paper.
In this time of pandemic, it is forbidden to be too close
In this time of pandemic, it is intimacy we fear.
Bless those who have been here before, but we didn’t listen.
Bless those who struggled to make ends meet before this crisis.
In this time of pandemic, straight people are waking up
In this time of pandemic, rich people are suddenly afraid too.
Bless those who have always been afraid, but we just didn’t notice.
Bless those who have not been afforded the slumber we took for granted.
In this time of pandemic, maybe empathy will grow.
In this time of pandemic, we turn to the woods and the ocean—
Bless the outdoors, which was there all along
Bless the time we have now to enjoy it.
Bless those in need of healing
The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit,
And let us say, Amen.
Lines in italic from Debbie Friedman’s “Prayer for Healing.”
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