TRIBE MEMBER CHECK-IN: Sandy Garcia MD
These are strange and difficult times- I dance between “just” doing my scheduled ER shifts (which are already risky) and “adding” myself to the “on-call list“ (for when the Covid Fire hits the wall)-Leela has changed how I make my decisions. Yet I still feel a pull to “jump into the fire”.
Before Leela, I would jump in the fire of the world’s medical emergencies - volunteering in Haiti, New Orleans, Central and South America, Nepal, India and China.
However, Covid is a different paradigm- A riskier game where the slightest of errors when one “jumps in” in could cost your Life.
As a solo parent, I consider stepping only into the embers, avoiding the fire, but this too is not without risk. My heart feels a pull to do even more, to be of service both near and far, yet I must balance the tightrope between Covid and Safety.
I remember reading Eckhart Tolles work years ago “A New Earth”, how we would and could collectively create a New Earth: Creative, Collaborative, Connecting.
This IS a new earth-but not how I imagined it to be, at least not in the present experience. Yet, I feel the World emerging full of Creative, Collaborative and Connecting energy.
I thought what would unfold in this “New Earth” is a new consciousness that would help us rise. It is and has, but at what cost?
At this present time, my perception is that the old consciousness has created a free fall...like rolling down a hill, and with Covid creating speed, destroying many in its path.
I choose to see the soul of the human spirit, its emerging loving energy, and this gives me peace and fortitude to carry on, enter into, and do my ER shifts- My gift of service from God, Source, from Life itself.
I sense a deep awakening taking place and Covids “path” will soon be diverted and destroyed.
What is emerging and needed in the embers of this medical crisis to Creative healing is:
Social distancing without Social isolation
Connectivity without emotional distancing
Creativity without resolve.
We will get through this Covid and emerge a New Earth filled with healing, hope and honor. We need to continue to be the change, the solution, and the strength-stepping into the fire, knowing we will have each other’s back to put out the embers that will follow.
To love, life and Ubuntu-
Sandy Garcia MD
Why Ubuntu?
Because in the end, I want to leave this world connected and filled with LOVE. As much as I “do” for this organization, Ubuntu gives me so much more in return-in LOVE, community and life.
My life feels full when I am in service to others. Next to the endearing LOVE for my daughter, Leela, there is no other space where that expression of LOVE is enriched, embraced, and embodied than in service to Ubuntu.
I could say that as a physician, it’s my service to Ubuntu that enriches me, but that is not my truth. My truth is that I feel embraced by all aspects of this organization -from the local “Tribe” community to the spirit of the Kenyan families we serve. This amazing organization embodies all that is my truth using just one word:
“Ubuntu”-I am because we are.
In the world climate of Covid, this way of life, Ubuntu, feels more important than ever.
I AM because WE are.
And so it is, for me to live my life of service to others because (in the words of The Beatles),
“And in the end, the LOVE you take is equal to the LOVE you make”.