It's not personal

When my dad got sick a few years ago and it became clear that he was dying, this was the thought that grounded me more than any other-my dad's illness wasn't personal. Life wasn't trying to attack me.

Nothing I was experiencing was out of the norm, in fact, it was the norm! On the contrary, death is one of the few givens that we get in life.

When I mention death I don't mean to seem morose. I don't just mean "Death" death, death with a capital D death. I mean all the forms of death that we experience. Death of our old lives, death of our youth, death of our hairlines ( for the other baldies out there like myself,) deaths of relationships, deaths of cars, etc. Right now there is a lot of forms of death we are all experiencing, both personally and collectively.

All change, good or bad is a form of death. EVERYTHING CHANGES. This isn't an exception, this is the rule. The times that seem static are actually the exception. So when we are brought into contact with the death of our routines from just a week or two ago, I just want to suggest that we all remember that what we are experiencing isn't personal, it isn't life coming at you, it isn't a virus trying to mess up your whole existence. It's just life. When My dad died it was sad but it was normal. It wasn't personal. Neither is this stuff that's happening now with this virus. It helps me to remember that, particularly in the moments when it feels like life is trying to shit on me.