“Space is an ally.  Space allows the planet to begin to heal.  Space allows people to break cycles of habit and inertia.  Space allows people to reflect, contemplate, and create in a way they otherwise would not.  Space allows people to clean the slate – to find renewed gratitude for that which they began to take for granted.  Space allows us to find each other in a new way, to re-define our relationships – with ourselves and each other.  

Meher Baba, a great Indian yogi, once said, ‘The one creates the many in order to see itself, in order to know itself, in order to come back to itself.’  Similarly, a Zen master went off to discover the truth and came back with a phrase, ‘At first I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers.  Then, I saw mountains as NOT mountains and rivers as NOT rivers.  Then, finally, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers again.’  In 1968, the Apollo 8 space mission turned the camera to see the Earth, capturing ‘earthscape’ – the first image of the Earth from space.  All of these stories highlight a similar theme – that space allows us to see things for what they are in full.  This is in contrast to the pixel-sized view we usually have of something that we are too close to. 

The COVID19 pandemic is allowing us to take space in many ways, and it is a direct offering from the Earth to allow this space to bestow wisdom upon us.  While it is quite uncertain whether we will allow this wisdom to penetrate us this round, I believe it will be the Earth’s method of teaching until we do.”