Courageous Engagement with the World THE VULNERABILITY OF BEING HUMAN By Danielle Poitras
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ife as we knew it came to a halt at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an instant, we became conscious of how vulnerable we are as humans and, at the same time, how connected we are. The global health crisis has impacted every aspect of our lives and tested our resilience as individuals and communities. With the lockdown in March 2020, the Naropa Community Counseling Center (NCC) sprang into action to support members of the Boulder community. With the help of Naropa’s IT Department, the NCC rapidly shifted all of its services to telehealth. “I felt like the clinic was prioritized and supported,” says Clinical Director Joy Redstone. “The Naropa administration understood that peo ple’s mental health was really on the line.”
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The eco-resilience group was another way to tap into this zeitgeist that we’re experiencing, which results in more anxiety, more isolation, more existential depression.”
One of the first priorities was the creation of a virtual COVID-19 support group. “Our clients were sad, anxious, isolated, and really in need of human contact and knowing that they weren’t alone,” Redstone says.
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“We didn’t talk as much about the wildfires until they were in our backyard, but now we must acknowlege the tremendous impact they had on people’s health. And clients are still reporting to us that all the smoke is one of the hardest things,” she adds. “It’s a visible representation of what’s happening with the climate. It’s so immense that it’s hard to digest. And it makes people anxious—and cuts them off from being able to go outside.” Scientists are looking at the intimate connection between climate change and the emergence of pandemics— how the unsustainable ways that we relate to our environment and other species are leading to new infectious diseases.
“Many people believe that the reason that pandemics are taking hold is related to our intrusion into areas that were formerly more wild. That as we take up space, we may continue to have these experiences with new illnesses,” she says. “Running the eco-resilience group was another way to tap into this zeitgeist that we’re experiencing, which results in more anxiety,
