Monday marked the beginning of the sixth week that LeadingAge staff members have been working remotely in an effort to protect each other, and our loved ones, from exposure to the coronavirus.

This anniversary is a sobering milestone for all of us here in Washington, including myself. Like most Americans, I miss my co-workers, friends, and family members from whom I am separated as I “save lives by staying home.” I also miss what I consider to be the best part of my job: visiting with LeadingAge members in their communities and at meetings and gatherings around the country.

I’m experiencing other feelings too.

I feel awe whenever I talk with members about the great, albeit challenging, work you are doing to serve and protect older adults, who are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. I feel proud of the work that my colleagues at LeadingAge National are doing every day to support you in that work.

There’s some confusion too. Like you, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to wrap my mind around the mounting death toll. Weeks into this crisis, I still shake my head occasionally in disbelief over what is happening to our country and our world. This head shaking inevitably leads to unanswerable questions: How did we get here? Where will we be 6 weeks from now? How will we—and our organizations—be different when all this is over?

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright recently gave me a way to start thinking about these questions.

“It is in the abnormal times that we learn most about ourselves and others,” Albright wrote in an April 12 column in The New York Times. “The shock absorbers that ordinarily shield our emotions and lull our minds no longer work so well. Our schedules are disrupted and our priorities change. We shrink, we grow, we may even die; we do not remain the same.”

Albright describes our world to a tee. Fortunately, she also offers us a way to make sense of that world.

She writes: “It might do well for us to view these abnormal days as an opportunity to ask more of ourselves, to reflect on our relations with one another, and think critically about improving the social, economic, and political structures that shape our lives.”

In short, I think Albright is calling us to figure out what we are learning from our coronavirus experience. This is a hard task, especially during a time that seems more chaotic then reflective. But LeadingAge members have convinced me that it is not impossible.

In every call and email I exchange with a LeadingAge member, I hear implicit or explicit observations, insights, new awareness, and knowledge. I can say, unequivocally, that we are learning every day at LeadingAge, in Washington and around the country.

It’s important that we don’t lose this wisdom as the weeks unfold and our days run together and become a blur. This is a devastating time, no doubt about it. But it is also a time rich in possibilities for growth and change.

I encourage us all to keep track of this growth and change. Create a space—a journal, a diary, or just a running list—where you can occasionally step away from the fray, take a deep breath, jot down what’s happening, what you’re learning, and how that learning might help you improve your life and the lives of others.

A chronology like this will serve you well over the long term. And remember what author Ryan Holiday says about this vital process of taking stock.

“The best journals … aren’t for the reader,” he writes in Stillness is the Key. “They are for the writer. To slow the mind down. To wage peace with oneself.”

In this trying time, that peace is what I wish for you.

Monday marked the beginning of the sixth week that LeadingAge staff members have been working remotely in an effort to protect each other, and our loved ones, from exposure to the coronavirus.

This anniversary is a sobering milestone for all of us here in Washington, including myself. Like most Americans, I miss my co-workers, friends, and family members from whom I am separated as I “save lives by staying home.” I also miss what I consider to be the best part of my job: visiting with LeadingAge members in their communities and at meetings and gatherings around the country.

I’m experiencing other feelings too.

I feel awe whenever I talk with members about the great, albeit challenging, work you are doing to serve and protect older adults, who are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. I feel proud of the work that my colleagues at LeadingAge National are doing every day to support you in that work.

There’s some confusion too. Like you, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to wrap my mind around the mounting death toll. Weeks into this crisis, I still shake my head occasionally in disbelief over what is happening to our country and our world. This head shaking inevitably leads to unanswerable questions: How did we get here? Where will we be 6 weeks from now? How will we—and our organizations—be different when all this is over?

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright recently gave me a way to start thinking about these questions.

“It is in the abnormal times that we learn most about ourselves and others,” Albright wrote in an April 12 column in The New York Times. “The shock absorbers that ordinarily shield our emotions and lull our minds no longer work so well. Our schedules are disrupted and our priorities change. We shrink, we grow, we may even die; we do not remain the same.”

Albright describes our world to a tee. Fortunately, she also offers us a way to make sense of that world.

She writes: “It might do well for us to view these abnormal days as an opportunity to ask more of ourselves, to reflect on our relations with one another, and think critically about improving the social, economic, and political structures that shape our lives.”

In short, I think Albright is calling us to figure out what we are learning from our coronavirus experience. This is a hard task, especially during a time that seems more chaotic then reflective. But LeadingAge members have convinced me that it is not impossible.

In every call and email I exchange with a LeadingAge member, I hear implicit or explicit observations, insights, new awareness, and knowledge. I can say, unequivocally, that we are learning every day at LeadingAge, in Washington and around the country.

It’s important that we don’t lose this wisdom as the weeks unfold and our days run together and become a blur. This is a devastating time, no doubt about it. But it is also a time rich in possibilities for growth and change.

I encourage us all to keep track of this growth and change. Create a space—a journal, a diary, or just a running list—where you can occasionally step away from the fray, take a deep breath, jot down what’s happening, what you’re learning, and how that learning might help you improve your life and the lives of others.

A chronology like this will serve you well over the long term. And remember what author Ryan Holiday says about this vital process of taking stock.

“The best journals … aren’t for the reader,” he writes in Stillness is the Key. “They are for the writer. To slow the mind down. To wage peace with oneself.”

In this trying time, that peace is what I wish for you.

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