I have an album called just that:  “These Times We’re Living In.”  It’s on Red House Records, and lovers of folk music of the “Prairie Home Companion” variety will love it.  But the title strikes me many times a day lately.

I have actually had it:  COVID-19–but I had it lightly, and I assume it is resolving itself, so I feel very fortunate.  I spend a lot of time wondering what this particular “plague” means for humanity.  In this country, particularly, it would be easy to take a very dark view of things, and I have to fight doing that:  decency and civility seem to have deserted us, and evil and narcissism rule.  People are dying, many for no good reason.  We seem to live in a police state, and we don’t know when the present circumstances will end.

But there’s the other side to all this:  people are finding wellsprings of kindness and unselfishness they might have forgotten.  There is a unity among the “little people” of this world now.  Decency and civility have NOT deserted all of us.  On a personal level, I fight despair daily, but I believe the battle will be won.

Today, in meditation, I found again the landscapes I came through to get here.  I found the purpose that is unfolding, the worlds that are eternal behind the false ones, the very planes of light….and knowing that these are more real than anything that seems to be happening here–despite appearances!–I can choose where to live.

May all people be well

May all people find peace

May all people be happy.

Om Shanti.