I just finished my evening Facebook Live post and during the post, I read a poem written by Steve Garnaas-Holmes.  This particular poem reflects for the essence of what community, especially a faith community is - connected regardless of distance.

No Distance

In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body  (1 Corinthians 12.13)

Our social distancing is an illusion.

We are one.  There is no distance. No gap.

Isolated in your apartment, you belong.

 

You breath and it fills my lungs.

You weep and my heart is broken.

We are one body in many places.

 

In this time of separation we open our hearts,

we allow ourselves to flow out from our bodies

in Spirit to one another, to the strangers

 

Who are part of us.  Like the Italians

singing from their balconies with neighbours,

we are all notes of the same song.

 

Love flows where germs cannot,  Meditate

on our amazing unity.  Extend your spirit 

to include all it includes:  the whole world.

 

Breathe in this breath (so threatened!), a gift.

Breathe out this breath (so released!), a gift.

Let compassion for all beings flow with it,

 

in and out, refreshing your whole body,

the Body of Christ, the whole human family,

the whole Creation.  Let love be our body.

 

Let your love take flesh.  Make calls.

Write letters.  And when you come back out

don't stop being one another's body.  It's your life.

 

It's just a little reminder that even in the midst of all this unknown and all this change, one thing is constant... we are part of something bigger, we are held and supported by community, and we are never alone.