Sheltering in Place

I have just watched Gov. Walz’ press conference on Sheltering in Place.

He used the phrase, “this is a human issue.” We think it’s about the virus, but I think he hit on a truth. It is about our humanness, our mortality, and the threat we feel as we’ve watched it make its way around the world. It is about our humanity. We cannot stop the virus but we can give it fewer places to breed and grow, if even for a short time. We can protect one another to rotate health care space–until more beds and ventilators are available. We can make choices for life, in order to effect as few lives as possible.

Many, rightly, use the word “unprecedented” to describe this time. I would like to add “tender.” This is a very tender time. Be gentle with yourself and with one another. We may be sheltering in place, but it is to create a wider sanctuary for life — sanctuary being a room for worship but also being a place of refuge or safety. We won’t be in our HOH sanctuary in person for a while longer, but we can live through and spread the peace, hope, and love of sanctuary in our homes, through phone calls with friends, emails, letters, and prayers. This is, in fact, the human issue. 

​Peace to you friends, 

Julia