This week our learning room on the book The Artists’ Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul With Monastic Wisdom, by Christine Valters Painter, came to a close. We celebrated our five month journey together with sangria and chocolate – a journey in which we shared our art work, insights, some tears, and much laughter. Through the author’s suggested contemplative practices and creative explorations and subsequent sharing we encountered presence, found beauty, and experienced growth and healing. There were many memorable moments during this course – one of them being when my sister shared the beatitudes she wrote while processing her time working in long-term care during Covid. As many of you know she left her job at Riverside Glen last spring when the outbreak there was declared over. She was exhausted, burnt out and traumatized.
For She Survived: Beatitudes for a Covid outbreak in long-term care
Blessed are those who told an elderly man that they tested positive for Covid and watched the fear register in his eyes for they will both survive
Blessed are those who donned full PPE for a third time in 15 minutes to bring Ruth extra cream for her coffee for they will one day find the perfect coffee themselves when they need it the most
Blessed are those who paced up and down corridors helplessly listening to people cough for they will learn to embrace their own breath deeply
Blessed are those who were caught in a system that could not provide basic care to the vulnerable and dying for they will learn new tools to care for themselves
Blessed are those who cried themselves to sleep and woke up exhausted from nightmares for they will understand the true meaning of rest
Blessed are those whose hands became raw, cracked and rashed for their mother will give them Avon Calming Relief and their brother will buy them Calamine lotion
Blessed are those who feel like they completely lost themselves for they will rediscover themselves with paint
Blessed are those who were in self isolation week after week not seeing their family, friends or partner for they will know the delight of being hugged, cuddled and caressed
Blessed are those who hear call bells and cries for help in their sleep for they will understand the true beauty of silence
Blessed are those who were exposed to Covid day after day living with the fear of getting the virus and passing it on to those they loved for they will receive the first vaccines
Blessed are those who held phones and tablets so families could see faces and hear voices for they will know the joy of doing that for their own father one day
Blessed are those that showed up everyday even though they were overwhelmed, exhausted and broken for their nervous system will one day start to repair and they will understand the meaning of the word regeneration
Blessed are those who were trapped in situations of moral injustice for they will find places of safety
Blessed are those that spoon fed liquid goop into dried blue lips for they will be nourished by food anonymously left on their porch and secretly left in their empty lunch bag
Blessed are those who felt like they had nothing left to give for they will know abundance
Blessed are those whose eyes became perpetually red and sore from sanitizers, goggles, crying and nightmares for they will discover new vision to see beauty
Blessed are those who cleaned up the bodily fluids of the dying for they will find comfort in the cycles of nature and the waxing and waning of the moon
Blessed are those who feel like the forgotten casualties of the pandemic for they will understand forgiveness and letting go
Blessed is the woman who lived through a covid outbreak in long-term care for she will find healing, peace and wholeness again
For She Survived was shared with permission from Tracey. After writing these beatitudes her nightmares stopped. She recently started a new job as a volunteer coordinator for an organization that works with children. Those of us involved in this learning room did not want it to end as it was a profound experience for all of us. But with the bonds of friendship that formed and strengthened, we will continue to encourage each other on this path of creating a life filled with richness and possibility. DV with TV