Troubled, trying times create opportunities for personal growth and spiritual awareness. Difficult circumstances offer opportunities to explore new dimensions of living alone and with others. We can take stock of what we have and reassess the difference between our wants and needs. We can renew and restore relationships, reaffirm feelings of gratitude, and revitalize hopes for the future through holding fast to one another and our dreams.

We can choose how to more wisely spend our time, energy and resources. Many look for opportunities to live more creatively, and as we explore creative outlets, many answer the call to help others in need. Pablo Picasso said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

A spiritual teacher, the Rev. Eugene C. Larr, taught that everyone is unique. He told me,“There is no one like you in the universe — there never was, and there never will be — and there is something you — and only you — can do relative to others. Find what it is.”

Your voice, your presence, your place in the scheme of things will be etched forever in the annals of these times. A poem by Kate Bridge, “Reach by Ktxx,” speaks to our need now to live separately, together:

Reach out to me
but do not touch
reach out to me
but do not touch
send love for me
and I won’t break
if you stay away
for my own sake

Throw off the Mask
throw down the shield
deprive the senses
we can heal
the sacrifice of human touch
each heart alone can
bear this much

Surrender to the power play
stand back and watch the rolling waves
see the world through heart-shaped glass
reach out to me
but do not touch
see how many lives you save

One day, we will be asked what we did in this time. Another spiritual teacher, the Rev. Ann Marie Lorenzini, in her essay “Remembering,” relates how we overcame a difficult time in the past:

“People are panicking and amassing various products to prepare themselves for the worst. Most stores have empty shelves, an indication of the fear people have of running out of supply needs. I can remember well the situation the world faced back in the WWII era. Again, shelves were bare of the necessities of life. What we are going through now is not new. We adapted then and we will do so now. Then, as now, people are putting their best foot forward to help others and to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Although our situation now is different than back then, the resilience is the same. We will survive this as we have survived in the past. Just remember to be positive, think good thoughts and if you’re so inclined, say a prayer for those who are suffering.”

We walk with others through life. Believe you can make a difference. Choose to act in a creative way that you, and only you can, and choose a way to be of help to others. Through such creative acts, we partner with the Divine. Our actions speak louder than words. Often in prayer, we kneel. To take a knee in this most troubling time is an act of love, the greatest creative force in the universe.

Rev. Larr taught that if we obey the one commandment, “Love ye one another,” you cannot break any of the others.

Barbara Basia Koenig is an Encinitas artist and personal counselor. Email columnists[at]northcoastcurrent.com.

Columns represent the views of the individual writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the North Coast Current’s ownership or management.

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