“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,” Carl Jung wrote, “but by making the darkness conscious.”

This is a stressful time. These are uncharted waters. I love being quiet, alone and at home . . . but I never thought about what it would be like if I COULDN’T leave the house. It’s different when I’ve been sick and I didn’t WANT to leave the house. I didn’t realize how much I relied on my simple routine of going to the office, even though I came home between appointments. By now, I was feeling somewhat ungrounded, I felt like I was kind of chasing my tail, and thinking, why can’t I get anything done??

It doesn’t do any good to beat ourselves up right now – or ever. It doesn’t help to be in denial about our current situation. It does help to name what’s happening, allow ourselves to feel how we are feeling, “making the darkness conscious”. Then we can make a choice: choose to be kind to ourselves, decide how to take loving care of ourselves.

So I reached out to my friend and therapist, Lisa Fields. It’s always good to reach out when we need help, and now it’s especially important. I explained how I was feeling, and Lisa said, “Give yourself Grace”.

We all just need to give ourselves a break right now. Yes, give ourselves some Grace. Take it easy on ourselves and others. We hardly know how to respond right now, so we have to rely on our inherent loving Nature – and offer that Love to ourselves first.

We’re all winging it right now, and we will figure this out. We will get through this. Julian of Norwich lived from 1342-1416; she witnessed the Black Plague. She wrote the earliest surviving book in the English language to be written by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love. I take comfort in what she wrote:

“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”

And as always, I send more love than you can imagine to everyone.