May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears – Nelson Mandela
One of the greatest survivors of social isolation I could think of is Nelson Mandela. Although his isolated periods in 27 years of imprisonment were broken up by times when he was able to build relationships with other prisoners and sometimes even wardens or politicians who wanted his help politically. He still managed to survive being isolated from the rest of society during much of that time and denied visits from his family.
He got through this by living in hope. Choosing to live in hope rather than allow his fears, which must have risked being overwhelming, to overcome him.
Reflecting on his experience can give us hope and encouragement in our time of isolation. We are doing it to stay safe and to keep others safe, out of respect for the people who are working to make sure we are supported, to keep them safe by staying safe ourselves.
Nelson Mandela managed it in spite of the fact that he had no choice. His gracious survival of his time in prison is a lesson for us as we live through the social restrictions imposed upon us by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our chaplains prayer this week is that we all find a way to fan the flicker of hope inside of each of us until it becomes an all sustaining flame which enables us to withstand the frustrations, boredom and weirdness that describes some of our emotional reactions to this enforced period of isolation.
As always if the going gets too tough, remember that MitE chaplains are here to listen. Our role is to offer spiritual and pastoral support that works for you. We don’t have an agenda of our own. We are guided by you. While we aren’t able to meet face to face during the virus lock down, you can contact a chaplain via email on info@mitechaplaincy.com and if you’d prefer to speak to someone request a call-back, we also have a range of resources on our web-site including some that are more specific to the Covid-19 outbreak: https://mite.org.uk
Alternatively you can keep in touch with us on social media:
Facebook: @mitechaplaincy
Twitter: @mitesthwarr
