Corona Contemplations

When a noggin becomes isolated on Easter

It is Easter Sunday and it is snowing. Not being a Christian, I don’t celebrate Easter and haven’t celebrated it since I was a small child who was forced to be a Christian.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. Back when my daughter was a wee little girl I put her through the joys of an Easter egg hunt. I love hiding things. I would hide about a hundred little chocolate eggs and sit back and watch her look for them. That’s not cruel, right?

I only hid chocolate eggs. Despite what the Easter Industry claims bunny rabbits do not lay eggs! My daughter learned this first-hand when a neighbor gave her a white bunny rabbit for Easter one year. She learned that those little black balls that rabbits lay are not eggs.

My girl would get tired of looking for eggs after finding a few dozen but the whole family would keep finding chocolate eggs for months. I had hidden so many that I forgot where I hid them. What a delightful surprise to find a chocolate Easter egg in September!

Good times.

Did I mention that it is snowing? It is Easter Sunday and it is snowing! I bet there are a lot of pissed off Christians in my town today — especially since they are not allowed to go to church. I am sure there will be no outdoor Easter egg hunts.

I wore short pants four times in the last week. Spring had arrived. I saw my first tulip, several hyacinths, several crocuses, and a few blooming trees. The daffodils haven’t started blooming yet, though. Oh, and the dandelions have very suddenly erupted in bloom. That always makes me happy.

And now it is snowing. We are only supposed to get a few inches but the temperatures are forecasted to get down in the low Fahrenheit teens. I bet there are a lot of pissed off flowers right about now.

It’s a great day for staying at home in self-isolation — or house arrest, as some are aptly calling it. For me, it’s no big deal. Except for the snow storm it is just another typical Sunday.

I recently wrote about how I am turning this whole pandemic experience into something positive through intense self-reflection and making changes in my life. Change is a good thing. I’ve been doing a lot of spiritual work and my life has been quite joyful during this plague.

I learned that I should be feeling very guilty for enjoying these troubled times while others are suffering. I learned that I should be shaking in fear like everyone else. Well, it is my tendency to buck social convention every chance I get. Sorry.

The Indian Mystic Namaskaram Sadhguru recently received much scorn when he said that the Covid-19 pandemic can be a good thing and put forth a very radical idea for the future. He suggested that the entire world set aside three weeks out of every year where all non-essential businesses were closed and all polluting technologies were banned. No one would be allowed to drive their cars or trucks or motorcycles. The only transportation allowed would be bicycles and walking. Everyone had to stay home during those three weeks and work on their spiritual practices and self-improvement and health. He said that if the world would do this that after about five years the world would be a much better place.

One of the positive results of this pandemic is that without millions of cars on our highways those in cities are finally seeing what their cities are like without constant pollution in the air. Some people living in cities near mountains are seeing the mountains for the first time. Dolphins are returning to areas of the Adriatic Sea that they have avoided for so many years because of the pollution from so much boat traffic. Around the world pollution has come to an almost stop and we are seeing the results of that and Mother Nature is obviously very happy.

If we shut down industry and incessant travel for three weeks every year that would have a very positive and significant impact on the health of our planet as well as help mitigate our impact on climate change. It would give the planet a ‘breather’ each year from the horrific damage we are doing to it.

I think that would be a fantastic idea. Of course those whose lives are totally ruled by the fervent accumulation of money and things would not stand for such an idea so it would have to be mandated globally. Those humans unconsciously conditioned with the routines of spending every minute of their lives working and producing and accumulating money so they can keep buying things won’t know what to do. To those hypnotized by the belief that the purpose of their lives is to constantly strive to produce more and more and more and more, the very notion of a three-week technology-free spiritual retreat is frighteningly anathema.

But I like the idea. I think it would bring about more conscious awareness among humans about the lives they are living. It would be a small step forward in the evolution of human consciousness. I’m all in. And I’m not going to wait for mandates. I’m doing it now.

Speaking of chocolate Easter eggs, I have been using this ‘Corona Time’ to give some very serious conscious consideration to the food I eat. For many, many decades I’ve known that the ultimate goal of healthy conscious eating was becoming a vegan but I’ve never been able to do it. One of my very favorite foods in the world is organic, cage-free chicken egg yolks. (Just the yolks, not the whites.) During my Corona contemplations I’ve realized that I am addicted.

Besides, I really like bison meat and green chile beef enchiladas and my secret recipe baked dijon chicken. I eat a lot less meat than I used to but I still eat it around four times a week. It has become easy to go vegetarian for two or three days a week but to go full-on vegan? I’m not sure I can do it. But this pandemic situation has me thinking about it. And that’s a good thing.

Of course considering my egg yolk addiction I’m thinking that instead of becoming vegan I’ll shoot for becoming an ovo-vegetarian. (At least the chicken doesn’t have to be killed for its eggs, right?)

In another recent writing I called myself a pacifist. Yet I eat meat! Am I a profound hypocrite, or what?

Meanwhile, I stare into my freezer and see that there is a lot of meat in there. I could throw it all in the trash but I think I’ll dispose of it through my alimentary canal. And then be done with it. Can I do it? Will it be as hard as giving up smoking or alcohol or addictive drugs? Just how badly do I want to be healthy? How strong of an immune system do I want? Would I go insane if I never ate another hamburger? Can I love myself and love the planet enough to make this giant leap forward? Will it help me attain nirvana?

As you can see, I am spending a lot of time during this pandemic lockdown thinking. I’ve also been spending a lot of time meditating (not thinking). Curiously, I have not increased the time I spend writing, in fact I am seriously considering reducing the amount of time I spend writing (so that I have more time to meditate and bliss out on life). The thought of giving up writing entirely has also crossed my mind for the first time in ages. I’m afraid, however, that that would be even more difficult than giving up meat. It may be just as healthy, though.

As you can tell by this missive I have yet to give up writing. And if you could see that there is a pot of my secret recipe jalapeno beef stew on my stove right now you would know that I have yet to give up meat. But I’m thinking about such things.

I’m also thinking about fasting. Three-day, five-day, seven day fasts; I used to do that all the time decades ago. Now I do intermittent fasting regularly but I no longer do full-day fasts or longer fasts. I’m thinking it may be time to take up fasting again.

But if I fast, then what would I eat?

Well, it’s time for me to turn off the noggin spigot. It looks like I’m going to have to get the snow shovel out of storage, dammit. Maybe I’ll have lunch first. That stew sure smells good.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. White Feather Library

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