Six Months of Sheltering in Place

On March 3, I woke up to news about devastating tornadoes tearing through Nashville, a city very close to my heart. Later that day, I met up with a clergy colleague and went to a meeting for interfaith leaders and clergy with Public Health officials concerning the novel coronavirus that was spreading rapidly in a Seattle-area nursing home. As I shared this information with my pastoral colleagues and church staff on March 4, some of the information I'd been given the previous day was already revised and irrelevant. A mere three days after that, the pastors of my church discerned along with our church nurse and building administrator that we should not gather for in-person worship on March 8. In less than 24 hours, we made our worship service livestream-ready. Over the next week and a half, we decided to prepare our worship services and other church programs to take place online, anticipating a shelter-in-place order from the Washington state government.

About a month into the pandemic and a couple weeks after beginning our sheltering in place in Washington, one of the church staff said during a staff meeting, "We probably won't be in the building for Easter." That statement hit me like a punch in the gut, and my initial reaction to the truth of that prediction was, "Ouch." Even though I had been, and still am, adamant that church is not the building and that virtual church is real church, the notion that we would not worship together on Easter morning was painful.

Now we are six months into the pandemic in the USA. It is September, and Seattle Public Schools have started back, while many districts across the country are already in session, mostly utilizing online learning. As for my church, we are continuing to worship online together, also offering a Sermon-by-Phone option for folks without internet, and doing our part to support the USPS with frequent mailings to children, youth, and vulnerable adults. We are contemplating what of our "regular" fall programming we will offer online or abandon for this year, and trying to imagine what the world may be like during the Advent season. Of course, we are also mindful that we shouldn't do too much planning for after November 3.

Six months. My partner and I have gone through many phases in this time:

• deciding to grocery shop in person as the only time we leave the house
• taking daily walks
• taking daily naps and no walks
• rearranging and redecorating (because if I'm working from home, our home workspace needed an upgrade!)
• perfecting homemade pizza
• running (I should write a whole post on this because I have been running regularly for about 2 months using the Couch-2-5k app and I actually like it!)
• jigsaw puzzles
• re-watching the West Wing
• watching all the James Bond movies
• watching all the Marvel movies
• picking up crafts again (lots of crochet, and learning embroidery for the first time!)
• supporting BIPOC-owned businesses through getting takeout
• participating in Black Lives Matter protests and rallies
• seeing folks through picnics in parks
• and of course, watching Hamilton on Disney+ (and then reading for days afterwards all the critiques of Hamilton and of LinManuel Miranda and then some...)

Most of my friends, family and clergy colleagues seemed to think the USA would be out of the woods with the pandemic by April, then by June, then by August, then by fall...then, then, then. It is hard to not think of the alternate timelines in which we'd have worshipped in the sanctuary for Easter, done summer camp in person, attended weddings and funerals and concerts and movie premieres. We'd be looking forward to traveling for the holidays and seeing our families who live far away.

Now I feel like I am making a to-do list for the next six months. I wonder if we have any tasks in common.

• resist
• volunteer to write letters, text bank and phone bank for Democratic elections
• vote
• organize my faith community to be ready to react to whatever comes after the election
• care for myself, my family and my community
• develop healthy coping practices
• stay out of large groups as much as possible (b/c COVID-19 is real and there's a lot we still don't know and each of us needs to do our part)
• but also be ready to demonstrate in the (COVID) safest ways possible
• pray without ceasing

What's on your list for the next six months?

How do you cope with the state of the world right now?

Where do you feel called to put your energy and passion?