Innoculated with Gratitude

This was written the day I received my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. As I sat for the required 15 minutes after the shot, was meditating a bit. In under a year since the disease was identified, this vaccine is in my arm. So so so amazing! (In an earlier life, I was a neuroscientist, so understand to an extent, the process involved in biomedical research. Thus I appreciate even more, the miracle of this shortened timeline without sacrificing safety and efficacy – I studied the data publicly submitted to the FDA). I sent love and blessings to all the people responsible for this. All the millions worldwide that were infected, that died, that are continuing to suffer long-term issues, their loved ones, the survivors, friends and family, all the people whose livelihood and life plans were interrupted and altered, all the people whose services allowed me to not step indoors for any length of time over a whole year, for loving humans, for the lifeforms that these vaccines were tested on, for the janitor that cleaned the space for me to be vaccinated safely, for the vaccine delivery driver, for the parking lot cashier with her winning smile, the road workers repairing a bridge over the Trinity River on I-35, for my loving family, for great health….. I had tears in my eyes and an overflowing heart.

Gratitude overcame fear. I did not experience the fear of sitting with tens of people indoors for the first time in nearly a year. It has always been the decision to let gratitude to flow, that has allowed me to make my fear go poof!, my internal resistance to recede and to step back before stepping forward – with arms open, with excitement and joy.

There’s also hope. That humans can indeed work together and get things done. Like water, not letting obstacles as small as an unseen virus or as large as this globe or numbers – as many as the 7,846,000,000 humans that need to be vaccinated., stand in our way. Working together. That is humanity’s through-line.