A letter from Joyce DiDonato - Daily Live Stream on her Youtube Channel

Dear Friends,

Hello. How are you holding up?  (Yes, You … !)  I hope you are navigating these days gently, delicately, and with whatever degree of tranquility you can manage.

I know I am not alone in recognizing what a surreal, historic, confusing moment we are currently living as a global society. I’m joking with friends that it feels as if we’ve all been thrown unwittingly into an Immersive Buddhist Boot Camp with no warning and no guidebook. (Except the “wash-your-hands” and “isolate” rules, obviously.) I’m vacillating often between an odd sense of deep grieving for things I might possibly be losing, and the calm of knowing that this moment holds tremendous potential for incredible growth and evolution. But being a member now of the “IBBC” like all of you, I’m searching for how best to use this time.

Against my normal Nature, I’m strangely not feeling the obligation to create like crazy, or solve all of the world’s problems, or learn the tempting, varied skills I’ve always put off learning. I’m actually embracing the opportunity for withdrawal and … don’t strike me down … but I’m embracing the opportunity for silence. I can’t help but focus my heart on the reality that we have all been plunged into an experiment of isolation and separation for some unexplained purpose.

“Why?”, I ask myself. There are certainly a multitude of varied arguments and explanations – I can’t profess to know nearly enough of it all to comprehend the possibilities – but I’m choosing to consider this a wake up call from Nature… or the Universe … or the Big Spirit in the Sky … however one may (or may not!) quantify the force that perhaps makes life exist or perish.

How often have I thought, “I wish I could just have more TIME: time to catch up, time to read, time to just BE”? Well, here is my moment, apparently. I recognize fully that I currently have the luxury of taking this time, and this is not the same for everyone. For some of you, isolation presents profound challenges. For others, being home and out of work will bring a huge strain and financial burden. Some of you may become ill, many of us will lose loved ones to this virus. But here we still are, right NOW, with each of our individual stories of how this moment will affect us, and with the very real power to move through this gracefully and emerge stronger on the other side.

I have a wild idea. And being a lover of wild ideas – I shall propose this to you, and then those who feel compelled to join will join, and some of you will decide it’s not your thing. IT’S ALL GOOD.

Seeking to learn and grow from this moment off-the-grid with the unexpected and unconventional opportunity it provides, I wish to hold some space for those of us who may need it, offering it up in a setting where we can gather together as a community. I’ll be online daily at 7:00 pm CET [currently 2:00 pm EDT] on my Youtube channel searching for various ways to meditate, contemplate, gather, breathe, be. Clearly, I hold no “wellness” licenses, degrees, expertise, and am decidedly not a guru (!), but there are a number of things I use in my own life that have been enormously helpful to me, and I’d simply like to share what I can with you, believing strongly in the power of collective thought and word. It’s an experiment – but isn’t everything?

It’s what I feel compelled to offer to you at this moment and I’d love to have you join in.  Roughly 15 minutes. Live. And I’m aiming for a daily practice – I’ll do my best to make that happen. Anyone who wants to be present – you are most welcome.

Lastly, THANK YOU for all who tuned in to our “Werther Salon” last week. We had huge viewership, and it was a profoundly moving experience to share with you all. If you missed it, or would like to revisit it, we’ve edited it for your viewing pleasure on Youtube.

This is a moment where so much inspired good is happening amidst the chaos. I encourage you to witness it, to let it nurture your hope.

See you tomorrow evening/afternoon. Or not. It’s all good.

Sanitarily yours,
Joyce 😉

Subscribe to Joyce’s Youtube channel here.

Photo by Chris Singer

We need you to make us feel an integral PART of a shared existence through the communal, universal, forgiving language of music, of dance, of poetry and Art – so that we never lose sight of the fact that we are all in this together and that we are all deserving of a life that overflows with immense possibility, improbable beauty and relentless truth.

Joyce DiDonato