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“Quaranteam,” I’ll Never Forget You.


When the 9/11 tragedy happened, it was 6 am in San Francisco. I was awoken by a panicked call from my friend Janine who was on the east coast and could barely speak. I spent the day in my bathrobe in our construction zone of a home with my partner Donald and a couple dozen construction workers glued to the TV. The day is seared into my heart as everything changed so suddenly, horrifically.

If you’re old enough to remember where you were when JFK was shot, you can recount a similar tale. Today, we have COVID-19, a collective experience which requires a different narrative tone. The storm clouds started to form at the start of the year, but we in the west took little notice. As Europe got overwhelmed, many still clung to the American Dream of exceptionalism that this wouldn’t affect our soil and soul. And, of course, soon we came to realize “it’s a small world after all,” and that this new kind of pain would come in waves, full of rancor and divisiveness like we’ve never seen in a time of collective tragedy.

El Pescadero, Baja California Sur

We also came to realize that we would need one another more than ever to navigate these unchartered waters. Here in El Pescadero, Baja California Sur, we have been gifted with a small “quaran-team” cohort of MEA staff and family. We’ve been living/working together for two and a half months, ever since we closed the campus. But, alas, an era is ending. This week our group disbanded, as most headed back to the US for the summer.

tatoo

To mark the occasion, we had a lovely pizza party in the garden. We noticed that both Hesed and Jenn have hummingbirds tattooed on their right collarbones. No, MEA is not the cult of the hummingbird. But, “Colibri” (hummingbird in Spanish) sounds a lot like “co-liberating” or “co-laborating,” which is precisely what we’ve been doing. To collaborate means “to work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something.” In our case, we’ve mostly been creating peace of mind and a sense of meaning from this rolling pandemic earthquake.

Our four MEA themes of evolve, learn, collaborate, and counsel, along with our eight practices of “humaning” were on display during our Wisdom Circles, meals, and especially during our lovely beach hiking adventure last weekend. Hopefully, you were lucky enough to have your own “quaran-team” to support you the past few months, even if it was just regular digital check-ins. And, hopefully, you will treasure your shared experiences as priceless gifts for this unpredictable time. I know I will.

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