Quaratine thoughts

Amid the fear, the confusion, 

the isolation, the loss of routine
and the quietness of formerly occupied spaces, 

what I can't get over is the constant realization 

that we have never been more together. 

All of us,

across the entire world.

At random moments during these long days of quarantine, 

I stop and think of people I know,

people I used to know,

famous people I've never met who don't know I exist,

people I know living in other countries,

those who live across oceans

or just across state lines.

We're all living modified versions of the same reality.

We're absorbing the same anxieties.

We're facing the same hurdles and asking similar questions.

Never in my lifetime has this happened before.

Nothing even close.

Our present reality doesn't care what religion we practice,

or how much money we have (or don't have).

It doesn't care about our politics, 

education, orientation, age, zip-code or time zone.

It's no respecter of schedules, deadlines or events.

We are all in it together

and we are all going to lose something.

(Please God, let our loss be a something 

and not a someone).

Ironically, at a time when we've never been more closed off from the world,

we've also never been more connected.

If there was ever any doubt that we belong to each other,

right now is when it shatters.

The Lakota call it Mitakuye oyasin,

we are all related;
and the truth of it brings me up short
and makes me catch my breath.

Things are hard and hearts are breaking,

but I keep looking up at the sky,

knowing you're doing the same.

I'll feel you out there, 

and yet somehow right here,
the same as me,

and it will help.

It already does.