This month it felt right to bring you a special post considering how Red Tent communities can respond to the current spread of COVID-19 across the globe which most of us will by now be aware of. It’s pretty clear now that it will touch many of us.
So instead of our normal format, this month, we bring you some thoughts on how you might adapt your tent for these times and some resources and information that you might find helpful.
This is a time to care for one another and the most vulnerable amongst us more than ever but to be mindful of the potential we all have to spread disease, perhaps unwittingly since it seems possible that we can be carrying it and infectious and yet feel well.
It’s a time to consider how you might temporarily meet virtually, create support groups to check in with one another and offer one another and others in your community support. We have amazing virtual communication tools now. This is the time to use them. Virtual check-ins can be offered via what’s app groups or calls on platforms like Zoom or Skype. Could you run your whole meeting there this month? Until this passes?
If you decide to go ahead with in-person gatherings think about how you will handle the possibility of transmission. From handwashing to reducing physical contact and about offering those in your community who may be vulnerable to other opportunities to connect. The advice on this is out there on ways to stay safer right now. Read it and take it seriously.
We can care for each other even in these times. But we are called to do it differently. To think about what care looks like right now.
This is also a time to feel our feelings. And to root into our practices. To use what we have learnt in Red Tents, in community to move through these times, to feel our grief, to acknowledge our fear, to stay present and look after ourselves and one another as best we can.
Here’s some inspiration we have found online that we found encouraging and we thought might encourage you:
- A timely and beautiful poem about washing hands by Dori Midnight
- 31 things to do in a time of Corona Virus
- Don’t forget Disasters and Crises bring out the best in people
- Coronavirus: Wisdom from a Social Justice Lens – Resources from this moment from our friends at irresistible in the US
- A Radical re-framing of Covid-19
- And finally, a list of Covid-19 Mutual Aid groups in the UK
If you know of other initiatives like this offering community support at this time, please feel free to share about them via our Facebook Group here. This is a time to spread our community spirit far and wide.
Something else you can enjoy online
An inspirational exhibition by Kat Shaw
85 women, 1 artist
This is a project to empower ALL of you women.
To remind you that we can survive, and we can rise.
It is about the scars that we carry… visible and invisible – the journey from trauma and terror to survival and strength.
A reminder that although we have had past traumas, they are our story, but not our ending.
The paintings have the straplines written over the top in acetate, so that the women can peel them off and release them, yet “and still I rise” is written directly onto the painting – because these women are warriors.
And so are you.
Each woman has also courageously written and shared their story about their experiences, which are shared individually with the images.
My aim as an artist is to empower as many women as I possibly can to rise up and accept themselves as they are with love and compassion.
I want all women to know that they are not alone and that through the bravery of these women in this project, you too can find the strength to rise.
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KatShawMayaSoulArt
