Love in the Time of Corona

”The only regret I will have in dying is if it is not for love.” —Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

As I opened up my Instagram at one point today, the first post that appeared was my friend Danielle’s. This spirited teacher friend of mine has been in Italy since Chinese New Year. Early in her trip, which has turned in to a temporary residency, she met Marco. Today, Marco proposed, and Danielle said yes. Love in the time of the novel coronavirus is real, indeed. I am toasting Danielle and Marco with my Chang beer from the Phi Phi Islands tonight. Yours, my friend, is quite the origin story.

In this time of great uncertainty, love is not the only thing that arises. As humans, we have all kinds of reactions to fear, some of them more shadowy than others. A number of my students have recently flown from South Korea back to China. One of my students has been sending regular updates to his teachers as his situation has impeded his ability to attend to his academics. In one recent email he wrote:

I hope you are all having a wonderful afternoon. While it was a really wild week, my mom and I were able to get into our residential area through the parking lot without much drama, most likely due to strong responses from the Shenzhen government to the residents. We are back home now, without much trouble. Thank you for your understanding this past week. Now, I can get back into working without any problems. 

(Also, the reason why we didn't get in on Thursday or Friday was because of the residents' reactions. Friday was especially wacky, as we basically had to stand in front of the gate while everyone was taking pictures of us and shouting "go back to quarantine virus!". A very wacky day, indeed.)

Go back to quarantine virus?! My goodness. My heart hurt when I read that. I know that Elliott is not the only one experiencing people uttering words that cause distress and acting in hurtful ways. Ignorance does not discriminate —- it enters all cultures; without deep awareness of ourselves, anyone is capable of letting their shadow cast darkness over others. It’s human nature. But so is it human nature to cast light, to shed rays of love and hope and support on others.

In addition to Danielle’s beautiful story, scrolling Instagram also led me down a reflective path, considering just some of the actions we can take to support one another and our communities right now, as Covid-19 makes it way around the globe. I love theconciouskid — this feed always has me thinking about leveling up my consciousness and seeing other perspectives. Especially now, it feels so important to consider how our decisions will financially impact others’ ability to pay their bills. .

I am reading what Jimmy wrote here, asking myself, “Who are the most vulnerable populations

in my part of Shenzhen? What can I do to support them?

GuanteSolo is one of my new fave humans. His podcast What’s Good, Man? is legit. So is his spirit of serving humanity.

As I am curled into bed for my last night on Phi Phi Island, I am continuing to consider what kind of light I am casting onto those around me. I have been living large for three weeks. I have been loving it. I also want to make sure that I am serving others and thinking of what the world around me needs. Right now, this in part means offering as much pastoral care to my students as possible. I am working to wrap my arms around them, figuratively, by reaching out through email and video chats. I think there is more, though. I am sure there is.

I am just thinking about the power we all have to bring Higher Love to our respective geographic spaces. (This dance video is still forthcoming, by the way!) It has been through the love extended to me in the past 8 weeks, by my friends, family, therapist, everyone that I have connected with at CC’s, that I have felt so sustained in this crazy, ambiguous world. So, let’s keep loving.

I am going to peace out here as beachside stays always bring on my narcolepsy. In closing, a number of photos to celebrate the beauty of this part of Thailand, a country of such kind people, and a country I am eternally grateful to have landed in.

This has been my morning view as I have walked out of my bungalow each day. I am arising early tomorrow for a sunrise swim.

The flora and fauna of Thailand will entreat you to pause time and again and just breathe in gratitude.

I could write from here for forever. And ever and ever. To hell with logic and reason. I’m buying real estate on this island.

Honestly, though. Thailand. XOXO

Writing from Phuket, this Side of Paradise

I feel like I have lived a lifetime since I last wrote an update in the Life and Times of the Coronavirus. Some days, it has felt that an entire Universe has existed inside of that one day. Two weeks and three days ago, I left Shenzhen for Phuket, Thailand. I was hesitant to leave at first, actually. I had settled into such a routine in Shenzhen, and I felt safe and secure in this routine; changing locales felt a bit riskier, at least that was my perception. Originally, for spring break, I was supposed to go to Taiwan for a yoga retreat. When Covid-19 hit, Taiwan closed their borders to China, so Plan A was foiled. I was disappointed, but I decided I would make my own personal yoga retreat in Shenzhen, until I came out a discussion with my therapist having decided to take a chance on a retreat in Thailand, one of the last countries to keep their borders open.

As I reflect on this decision, it feels like the Universe had conspired to make it so from the beginning. The past two weeks have offered space for my heart to open and expand and sigh into beautiful spaces. Before I left Shenzhen, I was worried that I would lose my writer’s flow, and while writing has not been a priority in Phuket, being in a flow state sure has persisted.

The first days in Phuket were spent on the beach. The woman in this photo did not yet know the trajectory of the trip. I have extended my stay twice so far, finding just what I have needed here in Thailand.

My days have been spent practicing yoga in the morning and evening, and in between, spending time with some of the best souls and living in the moments. If you find yourself seeking a place of solace in Southeast Asia, I must highly recommend CC’s Hideaway. The curry is delicious, the smoothies are divine, the yoga is transcendent, and the staff is so, so warm.

For me, what has also been extraordinary about this time is that my anxiety has been kept in check. For anyone, a time of such uncertainty can cause a great deal of stress and anxiety, and understandably so. Somehow, I have leaned into the uncertainty, and it feels that my spirit has used the life I am living at a slower pace to level up. I have seen and felt a great deal of fear around me, and yet I have continued to maintain a state of wellness for myself.

Thailand has been liberating. And that liberation, and the centered feeling I continue to be in touch with, looks a bit like this ...

Slow afternoons have sometimes given way to nights of dancing, followed by swimming in the middle of the night under the light of a full moon.

These folks are such good energy. Looking at this photo, I consider how special it is when you cross paths with the right people at the right time.

I watched a shooting star streak across a corner of the sky as I turned my attention away from the moon for a moment during our moonlit swim. It seems that some of the world has gone daft with the current viral state of affairs; my world, though, floats in a sea of just right moments. I have deep gratitude for what this time and space is allowing me to explore.

This morning, I am preparing for the first yoga practice of the day, and then I will get online to connect with my students. Teaching from Thailand is a bit harder than teaching from Shenzhen, but I will not complain about teaching from paradise. I have been meditating on words that I heard from my first yoga instructor here: More open heart, More happy life.

One of my favorite poets, Rumi, once wrote,

“There’s a morning when presence comes

over your soul. You sing like a rooster

in your earth-colored shape. Your heart

hears and, no longer frantic, begins

to dance.”

Wherever you are, I hope that you find space for deep movement, for peace, and for presence.

Sending lots of love from Thailand,

Jame

Reporting from China: Another Call for Higher Love

I've just returned from a date with the Denson's. Dinner "out on the (ghost) town" felt like a real event given the way we've been laying so low this week. We first went to a Hong Kong-style eatery named Gaga Garden, only to walk in and find that it was closing for the night. It felt like this ...

I don't know how to smize very well, but I think it's clear that I can pout with my eyes. This look did nothing to convince Gaga to stay open an extra hour. Ho Hum.

We ventured a bit further into Seaworld and this led us to Baia, a restaurant owned by a couple of European men that serves "upper-scale" food. I had the best meal that I have had in three weeks, the amount of time that I been Candida cleansing. Alli, Charles and I had the entire restaurant to ourselves -- we did choose to eat outside in the open fresh air.

I'm ever so grateful to be a third wheel with this duo. These two are my kind of happy hour.

The fine dining dinner did feel well-deserved after finishing our first week of online teaching and learning -- as an online educator now, I am definitely learning about how to reach all of my students through various modes. Altogether, though, it seems the instruction has generally been effective this week, and I do feel connected to my students, even from a distance.

While I have worked to separate church and state, for the most part, going to school and to Buttery to type out lesson plans and send audio feedback to my kids, yesterday I decided to work from home in the afternoon. .

Mom has always said, watch your children when they are sleeping (because when they are being pills while awake you'll be able to remember that they have sweet moments).

While my new routine has begun to feel quite comfortable, my heart feels weighted with how some of the world continues to respond to the new virus that came out of a city in China that was hardly on most people's maps until last week.

My friend and her family decided to fly home while we are not physically in school. The neighbors caught wind of my friend's family's arrival and interrogated her mother about where my friend and her family had been exactly. The neighbor was worried that her child, with a more compromised immune system, might catch the virus from the family just home from China. While I think we can empathize with a mother's fears for her child, her call to my friend's mother wreaked of ignorance.

My sense of the world's perception of the virus is that it has gotten the stigma it seems to have because it came out of a wet market in a country that doesn't have "great relations" with the US. A wet market is particularly foreign in a way that incites disgust, perhaps, and misunderstanding along cultural lines.

John Pomfret, for The Washington Post, writes, "At a middle school a few blocks from my house, a rumor circulated among the children that all Asian kids have the coronavirus and should be quarantined. Misinformation has also reached higher education: In college campuses across the United States, some non-Asian students have acknowledged avoiding Asian classmates for no other reason than, well, the coronavirus came from Asia."

This is rough stuff: xenophobia, ignorance, and baseless assumptions. To look at someone as a walking virus is to deny a person the very humanity that should lead us to care more deeply for one another.

I know, though, that it's not the whole story. I know there are communities of us working to share truth and love and open our arms to one another.

And here is when I put in another plug for you to join the #internationalhigherlovedanceteam. I have a handful of videos so far from friends and family, and it would be amazing to muster up more, of everyone dancing to Higher Love. Do whatever your soul moves you to do as Whitney belts out:

Think about it, there must be a higher love

Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above

Without it, life is wasted time

Look inside your heart, and I'll look inside mine

Things look so bad everywhere

In this whole world, what is fair?

We walk the line and try to see

Falling behind in what could be, oh

Bring me a higher love

Bring me a higher love, oh

Bring me a higher love

Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Reporting from Shenzhen, China: Back to School ... Online

It is nearly 4 o'clock in Shenzhen. I am just wrapping up my school day -- a very quiet, but productive day of delivering curriculum and feedback to my students on online platforms.

Sitting on my classroom beanbags, finding a friend peaking in behind me. #SISrocks

It'll be interesting what this more solitudinal life does produce ... today I wondered if I was really meant for Mars.

Because with Google and China #itscomplicated, Shekou International School uses Microsoft Office as our collaborative learning space. I have spent a good part of my day monitoring and dropping into book club discussions happening in Microsoft TEAMS.

I would prefer to be conversing with my students in person, but what was cool about today is that I could drop into multiple book clubs in the same hour; generally, during class time I can only sit with one book club each day.

I did start the day with some yoga, and then made it to a cafe near school in time to catch the halftime show.

HH Gourmet was opened by an ex-pat from New York -- he supplies Shekou's bagels.

This is the only part of the Superbowl that I understand. All hail Shakira and J. Lo!

I was getting sweet updates from Minnesota while I watched the halftime show, and I was excited to see that my two youngest nieces are working on being in the show in a few short years. #justaquickheadbang

After working for a bit at school, a few of my friends and I ventured out for lunch. There were two other individuals eating at a restaurant, Les 5, on what we call The Strip, the long line of massage places, restaurants, bars and pet stores that runs for several blocks adjacent to SIS.

Two Midwesterners and a Pacific North Westerner featured here.

Today's new norms: temperature checks when you walk into a restaurant and complimentary (read: mandatory) hand sanitizer at the same time. Later, when I walked into my apartment building, I stepped into the elevator to find that a box of tissues had been taped to the elevator wall. Convenient, I thought.

After school, I was blessed with almond cookies and almond bread baked by Alli, time to get down with my #wholebowls routine in my kitchen, and space to meditate.

Stepping away from devices now so that I can turn back to Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill.

Good night, or good morning, certainly have a good day from me and the kitty who loves to live on my air purifier.

I don't ever have to worry about her getting kitty asthma; she's breathing the best air in the house.

Reporting from Shenzhen, China, in the midst of #coronavirus fears, rumors, and new norms

Hello, dear friends and family,

I am snuggled up in my apartment tonight, writing as my second batch of chicken bone broth cooks in my instant pot, and the cats lounge at my feet.

I am pretty tuckered out tonight, largely because I ran a kick-ass 10k along the boardwalk with my friend Ann. This weekend I was supposed to be in Hong Kong for the 9Dragons race -- Alli was going to run the 50k, and I was slated to run the 10k. Understandably, the race was canceled, but my runner's lungs were still craving a little race pace. As Ann and I ran, masks (mostly) on, the scene was quiet and quite lovely. Along the boardwalk, instrumental music plays out of speakers in the bushes. Guards were posted regularly along the boardwalk to ensure runners, walkers and those strolling along were indeed following the mandate that everyone wears masks outside.

Ann is a fellow midwesterner. We have become fast friends because of this, and also because of our love of fitness and food.

The day was pretty cloudy, but we have had a great deal of sun this week, so I've been soaking up that Vitamin D.

Palm trees and distant ships in the South China Sea. The boardwalk is a sweet space to enjoy.

Some of the new protocols set in place this week have been strange to get used to. Just today my building stopped allowing visitors in, so my friend Katie, who came by for a bit, was not allowed to enter. This is disappointing, but we still were able to head out on our favorite hike nearby and enjoy coffee at our favorite cafe.

I have been to Buttery every day for the past ... many days. We love the oolong tea and ...

the pork and chicken and trumpet mushrooms. I didn't order to share, I ordered to have leftovers.

Altogether, I appreciate the measures that China is taking to prevent the virus from spreading further. I now get my temperature checked some 3 or 4 times a day as I enter and re-enter my apartment. Every time they put the temperature gun to my head, the apartment security is very kind. Honestly, I am thankful these are the only kinds of guns hanging around here. The biggest gripe in my day was actually the fact that when I blew my electricity yesterday, I forgot to turn on the water heater again ... the water was running mighty cold after that run.

This is a time it is especially useful to be inclined towards the introvert end of the spectrum. I love my solitude. I have many books, podcasts, Netflix shows, and a Shutterfly book that I started three years ago to attend to.

Earlier today I met with my colleague and friend Clayton to collaborate about how we will work on online platforms to deliver curriculum to the students. As of right now, we will be working online until February 17th.

Alright, kiddos, time for some Microsoft TEAMS discussions.

I am largely ignoring much of the media. If you want to hear more raw truth, I encourage you to drop CNN and FoxNews, and tune in to Harvard Health and NPR. I logged in to Twitter tonight to find that what was trending for me was #coronavirus. Not surprising. Just below that, though, was the #NoMeatNoCoronaVirus and I was like I just cannot with you opportunists right now.

I am fortunate to be part of a community here that is one to offer support, outreach and just some laughs to one another. My principal and director have been close at hand when I have needed to offset some anxiety with a conversation. Those of us who stayed in Shenzhen rather than opting for Thailand, or other destinations, have formed a group chat. Only honest and useful updates are posted to the chat, which was started by an elementary teacher who has continued to offer family hikes to look for bugs and enjoy nature. My friend Megan, also an administrator, has arranged for a viewing of the SuperBowl tomorrow. We are #shekoustrong because of this caring community. I feel so blessed to feed off of this community, and also give back to it.

I plan to offer daily updates here at lettersfromasojournista. No fake news, no bullshit, just what is happening from here in the bubble of Shekou in Shenzhen, China.

For tonight, I sign off with a picture of Ms. Silvermoon Free Solo, shortly, Silvie.

Why is she pouting? I am not entirely sure, but I have a hunch it is because Patacon said something quite catty to her.

Be well, everyone. Sending love from Shenzhen.