Yesterday I had the realization that many aspects of this COVID-19 pandemic experience are similar to what it’s like to go through the process of spiritual awakening.

To be called into a spiritual awakening usually entails finding yourself in some kind of retreat from the world you’ve known. As you go deeper into the process, there are periods where you can feel like you’ve been closed off in a solitary interior room, for a time frame that you have no control over. Some people are actually physically isolated from others during the process, whether by leaving a familiar community, loss of relationships, or by undergoing a drastic change in life direction. Sometimes illness is the cause of this retreat from “normal life.” The temporary isolation is necessary and protective.