A Time to Refrain from Embracing

“…a time for embracing and a time to refrain from embracing” 
—Ecclesiastes 3:5

In this time of rumors, uncertainty, physical dangers and pandemic:
 
This is a time to embrace a positive attitude and refrain from embracing fear.
 
This is a time to embrace facts and science and refrain from embracing false prophets who deny the danger.
 
This is a time to embrace our mortality, even as we refrain from embracing each other in order to prevent disease transmission.
 
This is a time to embrace our spiritual nature and refrain from blaming HaShem.
 
This is a time to embrace love and to refrain from hate.
 
This is the time to embrace the opportunity to connect in new ways and to refrain from isolating ourselves mentally and emotionally from those we love.
 
In this time we must learn to embrace the words of Ecclesiastes:
 
A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven:
A time for being born and a time for dying
A time for slaying and a time for healing
A time for loving and a time for hating
A time for war and a time for peace
 
Let us learn to accept it all yet refrain from embracing helplessness.
We are not helpless. We are fighters for our own survival. 
 
Though the darkness seems foreboding
Light waits it’s chance to return
COVID-19 seems overwhelming
Yet this, too, shall pass
We will embrace our spirit 
We will refrain from giving up

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