"Thank you for the people to wear their masks"

She chooses her words carefully.

“And thank you for the people to wear their masks.”

When we ask our 3-year old Sihasin to pray at the dinner table, she incorporates this into the prayer.

The pandemic, through the eyes and prayer of a little one.

As with any traumatic experience, it is easy to point fingers at this point in the pandemic as we look to lay blame for lives lost, life altered. Indeed, trauma often splits people, families, and communities. If we lack a language and desire to love one another, trauma leads to long-lasting division and turmoil.

Lacking love to guide us, we harm each other instead of healing each other. Our hands inflict hurt, instead of giving hugs.

To the detriment of us all.

I stand with Sihasin on this one. Actually, I want to learn from her. Dad as student, toddler as my teacher.

“And thank you for the people to wear their masks.”

We might start by acknowledging each other as companions in this COVID thing, understanding that we have gone through this pandemic together. Focus the lens on the deep bond of humanity that has been forged simply in enduring this together, forgetting the things that tend to divide us.

Imagine you set off for a 2-hour hike in the mountains with a group of friends. The plan suddenly dissolves as you find yourselves lost. What started as leisure now becomes frightening. The group works together, sharing ideas for getting back, hydration, and food. Finally, you make it back to the starting point eight hours later. In that moment of exhausted relief, your group now has a new, deep connection over enduring the journey together.

That hike, longer than anyone predicted, is our pandemic experience. Let us see each other, first and foremost, as fellow hikers who have endured a tough journey with us.

Having acknowledged one another, we can turn to healing. Like any traumatic experience, there are lots of wounds needing attention. Some are new wounds from the pandemic – fear of others, isolation, small businesses and low-wage workers trying to stay afloat. Some are societal wounds whose scab has been torn off during the pandemic – inequities in education, wealth, access to healthcare.

We must be committed to one another’s healing in these next months and years. The only other option is to allow the trauma of COVID to cause lasting injury to one another.

Sihasin, we hear ya. Loud and clear.

We have endured this together. Now we must heal together.

“And thank you for the people to wear their masks.”