*The beaches are closed. The parks are closed. But our hearts must stay open.*

Today, the US now has more confirmed COVID-19 cases than any other nation. That is over 82,000 confirmed infections across the country. And this is despite having performed a paucity of testing. Without question, there are tens of thousands (if not, hundreds of thousands) more cases that were not reported simply because we were not prepared to test this many people.

Slowly, each state is enacting Stay Home orders… But I am so fearful we have done too little, too late. Each day’s delay in stopping human contact creates more hot spots, none of which can be identified until about a week or two later, when the people infected start falling ill. The weaker the freeze, the more people die in overburdened hospitals — and the longer it ultimately takes for the economy and our lives to restart.  The death toll in the U.S. has quadrupled over the last week and I am devastated. And this will only get worse from here. Please, let’s do your part in slowing this virus down. Taking what feels like extreme actions now will allow us to have a quicker recovery when this crisis is over.

We are one day shy of a week into our compulsory stay at home order in California. The beaches are closed. The parks are closed. But our hearts must stay open. We are all in this together.

I know this has been hard – on all of us. I talk a lot about how connection is what defines us as humans. And this severing of physical connection has worn us all down. But I ask you to stay strong. Start to enjoy your alone time, because soon enough, it will be busy again. Spend this time reflecting on your life, your goals, the connections you want to continue to cultivate in life. The ones that are meaningful to you. This is a novel virus, and also a novel time. Enjoy the novelty of your solitude and time for reflection. Embrace it – you never know how long it will last; and if it is like anything else in life, it will be fleeting.

“When ‘I’ is replaced with ‘we,’ even illness becomes wellness.” – Malcolm X

.

.