By Roger Desmarais:
The existential angst of pandemics has gripped the world across eons of time in various shapes and lengths. In the midst of our own fearful experiences, we forget aspects of the universality of evolution arising from the co-creation of the world by the world itself: birthing itself, nourishing itself, manifesting itself, moving beyond itself.
Nature deals with the creation of beautiful mountain ranges and deep-green verdant forests by creating space through storms and tornadoes, ice and sun, fire and drought, quakes and tectonic plate shiftings. Wars and nature bring evolution to the natural ending of lives and nations. Plagues and Spanish Flu—deadly epidemics through the ages—continue the hygiene of the universe to heal itself at any given moment. It is in the interest of the world that pandemics, large and small, create space for the blossoming goodness of nature; for it is the nature of awful things to present opportunities for things glorious.
Out of this Corona virus that is pandemic will rise up—and is arising—the goodness of mankind (nations to nations, cultures to cultures, peoples to peoples, strangers to strangers) to help one another survive and thrive in the harsh light of the high noon of the evolution of now.
Pandemic of Love
What if you thought of it as
The most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying
Cease from selling.
Give up, just for now,
Trying to return to normal.
Give in, for the future,
Try to make the world
Different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
To whom you commit your life.
Center down and focus.
And when your body becomes still,
Reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
In ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
Are in one another’s hearts.
(Surely, that has become clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
Of compassion that move, invisibly,
Where we cannot touch, spiritually.
Promise this world your love—
For better or for worse,
In sickness and in health,
So long as we all shall live.
Dr. Roger Desmarais has written poetry on his experiences as a consultant to executives and their executive teams as a way to more easily connect with the Emotional Intelligent part of the total leader. This has also opened the opportunity to write poetry to define the Spiritual Intelligence that is the foundation for Ethical and Responsible Leadership—which is a growing request. His recently published book of corporate poetry taps the three intelligences: Intellectual, Spiritual, and Emotional: Disruptive Poetry: Upsetting the Perfect Corporate Status Quo.