Reframing the Pandemic Race

As a devoted runner, I find life lessons from this movement that help me get through difficult times.

Journey with me for a moment…

We have signed up for a distance running race. For some of us, this is familiar territory. For others who consider paying money to cover long distances on your own feet a ridiculous contractual agreement, just play along.

As we nervously approach the starting line, our race director tells us that today we will be running a race with no defined finish line. Imagine the emotions we would feel together at hearing this news. Confusion. Frustration.  “I want my money back.”

Instead of a well-defined journey, say 5k or 10k, this race with unclear distance and unknown finish line requires us immediately to switch our mindset.

Running races, like much of life’s challenges, give us a clear finish line. At age 16, we can get a driver’s license. At 18, we can vote. We know how many credits we need to finish a degree. We have clear deadlines at work for submitting a given report. Many working people right now can cite for you the exact month at which they are eligible to retire, even if it is decades away.

So, as the gun goes off to start the race, we have a decision to make. Do we run the race disgruntled and depressed at our predicament? Or do we turn this into a chance to settle into a new challenge and enjoy the experience?

Is it possible that we could enjoy nature’s beauty, the chance to see what our own body can do on that day, and the camaraderie of runners around us even more because there is no finish line to distract us?

By detaching from a “finish line mindset” could we become more present, the goal now being to enjoy each moment?

Let’s now step into the race we are all running, the COVID race on the pandemic course.

This endurance event that has us at a point of exhaustion and fatigue has no clear finish line.

We are on the course, facing daily and weekly questions that runners often ask aloud on the race course.

How much longer?

Can I really finish this thing?

Why aren’t there more aid stations out on this course?

 

I offer a simple reframe as we all try to figure out our pandemic race strategy.

Let us change our gaze from looking for the finite end of the race, a finish line that is yet to be marked, and instead focus on the progress we are making.

Say these three simple sentences to yourself:

Today, we are one day closer to the finish than we were yesterday.

This week, we are one week closer to the finish than we were last week.

And this month, we find ourselves a month closer to the finish than we were last month.

We avoid the runner’s pitfall of incessantly asking “How much more is left” and instead focus ourselves on our journey toward the finish, one step at a time. Enjoy the moment, listening to life’s symphony playing its beautiful music through your children, your family, your co-workers, and the sounds of nature. Appreciate those in the race around you.

“One day closer” now our mindset, letting go of “finish line mindset” and its accompanying worry about where/when the finish lies. 

We might also look over our shoulder. Appreciate the year we have endured and struggled and overcome since March 2020 forced a new reality upon us. 

We have already run a long race together, and we should take moments to be proud of the ground already covered.

Brothers and sisters, we are getting closer to the finish with each passing day, week, and month. That is true regardless of when/where the finish line lies.

Sit with that for a few moments. Better yet, take this new mindset, lace up your shoes, and go run/walk/move with it.

See you at the post-race party!

This piece was first published on the DADvocacy Consulting Group blog. Check out the stories and tales on the importance of "daddying" on their blog!

 

Meeting the Team

 The “pop up socially-distanced social” this past weekend was a simple way to show thanks to our amazing volunteers with the Native Health Initiative (NHI). These young men and women have served with the loving service that NHI is known for, not using the pandemic as an excuse.

We offered to pay for food and coffee for whoever made it.

That’s when I had a pandemic moment.

We have all had them, over and over. Things that finish the sentence, “Only in a pandemic would ____”

For instance, think about pandemic moments from your Valentine’s weekend.

Virtual parties and cards.

A year without those crappy tasting candy hearts with sappy messages on them, the ones that sit in the breakroom tempting us to try them even though we promised ourselves last Valentine’s “never again”.

Ordering takeout in lieu of a nice sit-down dinner and then having that guts to offer a lame-o excuse like, “Dear, the reason I got the food to go is that I care so much about your health and safety. Besides, I don’t think either of us look as attractive wearing masks. Now where are those plastic eating utensils?”

Man, any other year that sentence would be a relationship-ender, right? This year, that gets you kudos and a kiss on the cheek for being so (COVID) considerate and (public health) grounded. It might even be considered (pandemic) romantic.

Back to coffee.

Eliana is a wonderful medical student. We asked her to help lead a program of NHI called Healers of Tomorrow. This program, known as HOT, requires an incredible amount of coordination amongst a team of leaders, and this year’s team has worked hard to support 50 high school students aspiring to be health professionals. The HOT leaders spend 20 hours a month coordinating the monthly seminars, 1 on 1 mentorship and service components of the program. (Remarkably, NHI operates this program on less than $1000 a year most years. The beauty of love-grounded activism and our incredible volunteers!)

So, why is Eliana beaming so bright as she walks out of the coffee shop? I know how nice a small treat can feel when you are in medical school. Been there.

And I know how nice it is to be able to have live human interaction after 11 months of virtual living.

But Eliana’s smile was about something else.

“This is the first time I have actually met my HOT team!” she exclaimed.

I had to think. When we asked Eliana to step up amidst her medical school duties, it was over zoom, April 2020. Indeed, she had developed an intense working relationship with people she had never met. This team has worked so seamlessly together that I had forgotten they had never sat in a room together, never met over coffee. Their friendships and incredible work had been built on and in a virtual world.

Maybe you have had similar pandemic moments as Eliana was had at the coffee shop?

Maybe I was the one having a pandemic moment, being jarred from my pre-pandemic world where I was always the one imploring our NHI teams to meet in person, feeling this was the only way to create strong teams.

And as the sun peaked out from behind the clouds, I caught a glimpse at the beautiful resilience that epitomizes all of us over this last year.

We have found new ways to be.

        We have found new ways to serve.

                We have found new ways to love.

Happy (belated) Valentine’s. Next year, I promise to tell you this in person with a hand-made card with a few of those crappy candy hearts taped to the front.

Three of our incredible HOT program leaders (L-R): Talyia Torres, Lorenzo Silva and Eliana Garcia. Meeting for the first time in-person after 10 months of incredible virtual work together.

Moving Ahead

 

Like a dog driven by sense of smell exquisite, I am drawn to the inspiration of life with intensity. My kids and family, my patients, my experiences in the woods and mountains as a runner. Probably more so over the last year, I seek the sweet scent of inspiration, having been changed by the process of writing regularly. Not a good speller, but I do enjoy writing.

As I moved on the bike path, I began to pick up a smell of something beautiful.

Crossing under a tunnel, the aroma was stronger still.

And suddenly, it was before me.

A sign. Like, a real-deal sign. Obviously planted there by a talented artist, a do-gooder, or a person looking to make the word a brighter place. Maybe someone fitting all three.

I gave thanks.

“Moving Ahead”

That’s what the sign said, for those who chose to see.

Obviously the work of a skilled artist.

Placed there just for me.

I thought about my bike ride. Movement is indeed sacred, cure for stagnation and all that threatens our vitality.

I thought about the pandemic and all of the moments where we have all wallowed, wondered aloud: “Are we moving at all? And if so, is it backward or ahead?”

Moving Ahead!

I trembled with fear and hope, alchemy instantaneous.

And then I trembled from a machine trembling not too far away.

And smelled the sweet smell of fresh-cut grass.

Kinaaldá

running

                       2

                           sunrise immaculate

                                  rise

                                                  2

                                                        Higher Selves

                                         image of Holy Ones

 

sand gathered

    clay sifted

        fire started

            cake envisioned

                delicacies created

                    K'e' alive and breathing upon us

                                                           thru us

after a year infectious

it is love and joy and ceremony now spreading

isolation the curve flattened

shot in the arm

2 immunize against despair

any symptoms 2day?

Yes

                       joy

Yes

                       soul elation

Yes

                       centered again

This week's inspiration for writing was my daughter, Nizhoni. She made a big leap toward womanhood this past week, celebrated in a 4-day Navajo ceremony known as Kinaalda. It honors the sacred moment of first menstruation, of leaving childhood and becoming a woman. Doing Kinaalda in the pandemic was different - Zoom for people to join the ceremony virtually, COVID protocols meshed with ceremonial protocols. This piece was written on day 2 of the Kinaalda as we prepared for the Navajo cake to be made using an urban modification - didn't want to hit underground gas lines using the traditional fire pit in the ground. 

The picture shows Nizhoni after one of her 13 runs that are a central part of the Kinaalda, with running used as a prayerful, spiritual exercise. The runs are meant to strengthen her as she moves from girl to woman. Snow was gifted to us during the ceremony and was a beautiful part of that morning's run.

May we keep ceremony, in all of its forms/languages/rituals/religions as part of our days and weeks!!! Today, this week, next week, and beyond. Doctor's orders.