Love in the Time of Social Distancing

Photo Frisky On Ground

In this time of social distancing, I’ve started experimenting with erotic writing. Sex is about procreation and love needs to survive. I think love and survival are the two things we are thinking about incessantly.

My husband died in November. He was my best friend. Now, months later, the virus has the rest of the world turning in with me. We’re questioning how we live, how we breathe, how we touch, who we let in. In this strange new reality, I watch my personal grief projected onto the outside world exponentially. I’m not alone facing this great mystery.

So, I started writing a chapter about love. It’s a full blown love making scene. It gives me joy and pleasure in a very basic sense. Making tantric love with the right person keeps you captivated by the present. It’s discovering your innocence again. Writing about making love is like recounting what it’s like to fall into the fountain of youth.

When you lose somebody close to you suddenly, you’re left amongst the living but without any sensibility. You’re straddling realities, touching this and that, but mostly gazing into the beyond. This half self is a paradox and very much like the act of losing yourself in love. Suddenly, you’re swimming in darkness only to realize that the sun sets on purpose so the moon can exist.

There is little advice I can share during this difficult time except, try not to be afraid of loving in darkness. You can help prepare for the dawn of a more sensitive world. Try taking off your boots with someone special and laying together on a big cushion or pillow. Try imagining that you’re floating and breathe deeply together. Don’t worry, you’ll begin to feel something… like you’re touching, the great beyond energetically. Now, don’t hold back, that wild in you, and don’t hold back the wild in your partner. When you’re all out, raw and naked, you’ll still be you, except fearless and breathless too. Don’t be afraid to  expose your true nakedness, your vulnerability is love and love is your survival these uncertain days. Kiss each other intimately until you are lost in the cave.

It’s only when we cease to exist, we find togetherness.

Don’t worry about being exposed right now. We’re already exposed because we’re human.

 


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  • Comment (2)
  • Andres says:
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    Dear Raquel, Very sorry for the loss of what sounds like what we all want, a loving soulmate. I am happy that you had your time together: so many live and die not experiencing what you both had and from your beautiful piece of writing it is clear you know this and wish anyone who has a chance for this kind of love to go for it. Peace, Andres
  • Christi Voenell says:
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    Raquel, Thank you. This writing moved me to the core. I don’t know how I missed taking in that your husband died. To read it while also reading about the power of the erotic to cut to the core of our vulnerability is profound. I send you loving kindness. I finally have the daily practice I have been after all my life. It takes place at the end of my driveway, in a two acre arroyo shared with my co-housing neighbors. A sangha of women over 50, coyotes, 4-5 that come through every other week, stopping to Mark their trail and even bless us with a chorus of howling last month that had five of us, feeling like we witnessed the tabernacle choir. Three deer come regularly, oblivious of Coronavirus and timers and sometimes ten feet away staring at us with dark blinking eyes when we open ours after 30 minutes. I just read a quote, “life is a great deal more fun and easier to manage when you stop blaming others. Give it a try and see what happens. “. I am going to try it out. And see if I can appreciate all my blessings more. It is as if I have won the lottery and I still wake up with a dark pillowcase over my head. Your writing is one more of my blessings. Along with the tree squirrel on my porch, and the lemon bush bursting with lemons. Sending Love, Christi >
  • Thank you Raquel. Your bold, courageous share underscores some thoughts and feelings I have been wrestling with lately. At the very least, I feel a bit more inspired to explore what’s possible.

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Raquel Ríos

“An upright, graceful posture brings the light energy we need to make wise choices for ourself and society.”
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