With the new BA. 5 variant on the rise in the United States, I am regularly reminded that our time as a global community with COVID-19 is far from over. With each passing day and the happenings in our world surrounding the Pandemic and beyond; I remain present to the fact of my need to stay mindful.

Mindfulness is a practice I have discussed on many occasions and occupies a number of the pages of my book, The Invitation to Love – but the art of it cannot be stressed enough. With the proliferation of vaccines and therapeutics, many of us (myself included) have looked at the Pandemic as something in the rearview mirror, behind us, rather than with us currently. With COVID-19, there are risk in not being mindful to what is happening: rise in cases and rise in hospitalizations.

I see the Pandemic as a teacher of sorts and can serve as a metaphor for so many aspects of life. I think about (and ask myself the question) how I am mindful (or absent minded) in my relationships, how am I mindful of finances, how am I mindful of my health. Like COVID-19, I may not feel it, may not presently experience it, and I certainly don’t see it – nonetheless it is there.

The vaccine may not be an antidote to my finances, health and relationships, but mindfulness is….I am taking the time to reflect on my health –how I honor my body and what I put in it. I think about my finances as a relationship to foster and offer attention to; and finally, in my relationships, I stay mindful of a fact I first learned in the book, A Course in Miracles, that communication is one of our greatest acts of love. How am I communicating my needs, my hurts, my truths to the ones I love? – For me, these are vital questions.

We are in a season of new variants – variants in relationships, finances, health, an on-going list of considerations; and yes, COVID-19. With each new variant, may we be mindful of how we offer attention, respond, and prepare ourselves for the moment when this season (like the ones that came before it) changes.