A letter to my church about CoronaVirus:
My best advice as a hospital chaplain (for now)
Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion — towards ourselves and towards all living beings.
Thich Nhat Hanh
I am both your affiliated community minister and a hospital chaplain. I feel so honored to be both! I wanted to check in with you, as we are in uncharted territory with the reality of the pandemic known as Covid-19, or the Corona Virus.
To truly check in, I want to ask, up front: How are you? In any given day, we may feel nervous or anxious or worried. And, we may find deep joy in unusual places: For instance, all the museums that are sharing virtual tours, or the Kansas City Zoo sharing a live Penguin cam, or the Metropolitan Opera and its live performances. We may have actually slowed down enough to feel, or to listen deeply to our beloved. The important thing is to feel whatever you are feeling and to be okay with whatever that is.
Maybe you’d like to take five minutes in the morning of silence and five minutes in the evening. Just silence. Just focusing on your breath.
Perhaps you’d like to check out an app like Calm or Centering Prayer or HeadSpace. I love those apps.
Maybe you’d like to start writing old fashioned cards, to stay connected with others.
If you live alone, please do all you can to stay connected with your church friends, families and/or neighbors, by phone or email or facebook, etc.
I have started using the free images from French museums to engage in a thing called Visio Divina — sacred seeing. I find an image I like or that strikes my fancy and meditate on it, for 30 seconds or a minute. And reflect on what came to me in my meditation.
Find your gratitude journal and start writing. There is still so much to give thanks for, even with all the interruptions and irritations!
All of that is my talk to you from my perspective as your community minister. Now, a few words from me as a hospital chaplain.
Take this opportunity to fill out your advance directives. AND take this opportunity to have meaningful conversations with your loved ones about your wishes. You do your loved ones a great favor by honestly sharing your wishes and completing your paperwork! Make extra copies and distribute them. Find them here:
https://www.coloradoadvancedirectives.com/advance-directives-in-colorado/index.html
If for some reason, you are visiting a friend in the hospital, know that there are changes coming daily about who can visit and under what circumstances. At my hospital, Penrose St. Francis, patients may only have one visitor per day per patient, and that person must be designated by the patient or their proxy. If you are symptomatic, do not visit the hospital. Prepare to be screened at the front entrance. You may want to call the hospital ahead of time and find out what policies are in place for visitors. I think Chaplain Nathan over at Memorial would say the same.
If your friends or neighbors with a health care provider, adopt them. Send them candy or a note or whatever. Check in on them. Chances are, they are tired and stretched and doing amazing work with a most unusual set of circumstances.
If you pray, pray. If you hold space, hold space. If you keep people in the Light, keep people in the Light. If you send good vibes, now is the time. Whatever it is you do, do. For yourselves and all creation.
Let a joy keep you, now and always.
Love,
Roger Butts
Penrose St. Francis Staff Chaplain
719–776–5660
rogerbutts@centura.org
