According to the New England Journal of Medicine, on December 31, 2019 China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in people associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei Province. On January 7, 2020, Chinese health authorities confirmed that this cluster was associated with a novel virus, 2019-nCoV.
On January 20, 2020, four days before Earth School opened its doors for the very first time, the first confirmed 2019-nCoV infection was reported in the United States, in Snohomish County, Washington. We heard a rumor about the disease, but Washington State seemed very far away.
Ten days later, by January 30, 2020, a total of 9976 cases had been reported in at least 21 countries.
As of March 1, 2020, the Wall Street Journal announced that the virus had reached New York State, and less than two weeks later, on March 12th, the first confirmed case was reported in Dutchess County, where Earth School is located.
The day after COVID-19 was confirmed in Dutchess County, March 13, 2020, we gathered at Mawenawasigh for Earth School’s third Weekend Retreat. Together, we considered vision, boundaries, effective communication, and how to find and maintain dynamic balance -- all of which have been called for in our responses to the pandemic. After the students set out for home on Sunday, March 15, I read an article describing how exponential growth could affect our ability to respond as the then-still-novel coronavirus spread. I shared the article with Craig, and that evening the two of us took the decision to begin social distancing and shelter in place.
As I write on May 12th, 2020, it's just 61 days later. Nearly 300,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 in 212 countries around the world – as many as 8,000 deaths per day. The US has been hit hardest by far: 1,396,751 of the 4,318,800 cases reported worldwide so far have occurred in the United States. Nearly 83,000 Americans have died, and nearly 15% of the US population is unemployed. Patterns of extreme economic and social disparity have been undeniably exposed and deep and fundamental disagreements as to personal and national priorities become more and more sharply highlighted every day.
Here at Earth School, we’re interested in “Land-based Learning for Health and Sustainability.” The thing we’re studying, at the deepest level, is whole system healing. We’ve been given an opportunity to focus on these priorities and to put our principles into practice. And here, the results have been truly transformative!
Sheltering in place has allowed us to lift our focus from the distractions of the 21st Century – rushing here and there to buy, see, and do -- and put it back on the place where we make our home. Decades of study and practice -- about food and diet, sustainable systems for Land-tending and housekeeping, effective communication and collaboration, and general self-reliance -- have created a resilient system that is proving its ability to withstand the rapidly changing reality of the coronavirus pandemic, with its’ accompanying disruptions and anxieties. Staying at home has allowed us to go deeper in our awareness of what is here– both on the Land and in ourselves, and to fine-tune what we find into a beautiful, powerfully integrated system for living in joy and satisfaction.
Most importantly, although we’ve been socially distancing, we’ve not been socially *isolated *at all. The spaces in the day that were previously filled by driving from place to place now include time together with loved ones. We’re hard at work on the Land and in the gardens, accomplishing things we've been meaning to attend to for years. We're growing abundant food for the coming year. And we're making our way through the paperwork: bit-by-bit the piles that have been waiting for attention are dwindling. Most surprisingly and dramatically, we’ve pushed the technological envelope as well. Like schools around the nation, we moved online -- and delivered Weekend Four long distance via Zoom. We also offered three online classes at the Touch Mother Earth 50th Earth Day Festival, and we're now offering a daily online movement and meditation class called 3M, free-of-charge six mornings each week to anyone who would like to participate.
3M has been especially wonderful. It has served as a rudder, stabilizing all of our other activities. Participants report that it has helped them to remain grounded and purposeful in the face of the disruptions and upheaval brought by the pandemic. Daily, this simple movement practice and short sitting meditation have allowed participants to go inside to connect with themselves and orient to the most personally fruitful way of being in each moment, as the external situation moves in surprising ways. We continue to offer this practice free of charge at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, Monday through Saturday – if you'd like to join, please write for the Zoom link.
As the world population approaches 8 billion, and social and environmental exploitation and consumerism degrade land, water, air and the human spirit, it's time to find new ways of living that are more in keeping with the original Divine design: beauty, cooperation, collaboration, and sensitivity to balance and harmony in the whole system of which we are each a part. This coronavirus pandemic is offering each of us an opportunity to vision, to practice, and to ask important questions: What is the World we want to create going forward? And what new understandings and skills, what awareness’s and relationships, what decisions and actions are needed from each of us now in order to move toward creation of that World?
Here at Earth School we are working in the direction of those discoveries. If these questions are of interest to you as well, we would love to have you as part of our community. Please, be in touch!!
“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” — Cynthia Occelli”