Love is the end of isolation. Sometimes, when I have meditative moments of insight, I get messages of clarity, wisdom, poetry like this: Stop trying to be normal. The end of isolation is love.

This week, after the virtual school started for my 4^th grader, but before the preschool has started for my almost 3 year old, I crumbled in a day of chaos, fallen under the hammering spell of a low-grade stress headache. In respite, I sat on the porch, trying to find some order in my mind, and how to create a new work/live/school schedule all under one roof. Its Quarantine 2.0!

The Eastern wildfires made it over the Cascades. The week has been hot and unpleasant, as we are unable to open windows do to the poor air quality. But that evening on the porch, I didn’t seem to notice as much. Weather cooled down, and I closed my eyes to imagine a place with no facemasks, no glowing red sky, no virtual school, no divisive politics, no hate crimes, no feeling of lack, no isolation.

In that imagined place, I see a vibrant music/art scene, public places where all types of people can gather like a living room, healthy spaces that are full of acceptance and growth for all – spiritual, economic, artistic, earth-based, and community love.

Love. It is what the world needs now, so let’s not forget it – and its not just for at the end of isolation. Let’s not wait for this quarantine to be over. Love of others and what we value can be found right here, in the middle of unknown territory. Perhaps, it is during this time that love matters the most, and when we find it, that is the end of isolation. For, by undoing the feeling of loneliness, there we find love.

I understand that this may not be a time where finding love in familiar places is possible. Some of our favorite activities (such as going out to hear/play live music), simply don’t exist. This is a heartbreaking time. So, I would just like to say that I have faith. I have faith in love, and even when I don’t know where I’m going, I will focus on that. I find love in my most basic needs met some days, in the simplest of ways. One Tuesday morning, I baked a cake simply because I needed to do something that made me happy.

Thank you for helping me to not feel isolated. It is true that my career has been deeply impacted by the woes of 2020. Sometimes, I have serious self-doubt about what I am doing and where I am going. I want to believe that I am still going in the right direction, but I feel alone in knowing anything for sure. As a reader of my newsletter and this blog, listener of my music, as a Patron, you give me purpose to create Harp Escape. So, thank you for listening.

Maya Angelou said, “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” Looking within has a magical effect. When we spend time with our own unique nature everyone around us can benefit. Let’s use 2020 to develop our most genuine non-normal selves!