SHELTERING-IN-PLACE - a poem by Cheryl Martine

This is how it is for me just now.

Right now – sheltering-in-place -
living in the not knowing

I feel myself in ferment.

Swirling around me, questions.
What is really happening right now?
What is really being asked of us?
What are we preparing for?

Strangely, the swirling questions call me
to silence, stillness, a waiting.

So, I garden. I walk. At night I close my eyes.
The garden lights up in me. Intense. Dancing light.
The elementals?
Might I be serving them somehow as I fill my life
with weeding, with seeding?

I study. I meditate. At times a word, a phrase, lights up in me.
For a moment there is a glimpse of knowing
I don’t know what.

I converse. I speak what is lighting up in me. You speak.
The lighting moves around the space, each of us sparking the other.
We feel revelation.
The light recedes – in us – recedes into our darkness,
Warming.

I learn to move eurythmically. I feel breathing.
My body learning breathing. Nurturing and sustaining me.

Death threatens all around.
I feel Life.

I ask, what are we preparing for while we shelter in place?

This is how it is for me just now. How is it for you just now?