Minister's Post, Fri Apr 9

ICYMI ("In Case You Missed It")

Here's the Apr 4 service, "Easter in These Times: Ordinary Easter"



Covid Watch

Worldwide.
The 7DMA (7-Day Moving Average) of New Cases per day has been increasing since Feb 20. It's up from 361,347 on Feb 20 to 613,659 on Apr 7. That's a 70 percent jump in 46 days.

The 7DMA of deaths per day, worldwide, peaked on Jan 26, and fell steadily until Mar 12 -- a decline of 42 percent over 45 days. After Mar 12, however, deaths began increasing. The 7DMA of deaths per day on Mar 31 was up 19 percent over Mar 12 -- but has been flat since Apr 1.

United States.
In the US, the 7DMA of new cases per day fell to just one-fourth of what it was at the Jan 11 peak. Through March and into April, though, new cases have stayed fairly flat at around 60,000 new cases per day.

The 7DMA of Covid deaths per day on Apr 7 is 771 -- the lowest since Oct 19. That's a 20 percent decline from a week ago (Mar 31), and a 78 percent decline from the Jan 26 peak.

Still, the rising incidence of the B.1.1.7 variant is concerning. So be careful!

Yours in the faith we share,
Meredith

Practice of the Week

Have Insight. We just mean noticing the way your mind constructs your reactions to things. Having insight isn’t so hard if you determine to do it.

Let's say you’ve had a frazzling day, and you went out. You get back, and your partner says, "Did you get eggs?" Eggs had not been discussed. You didn’t know there was any need for eggs. Irritation arises. Your body tenses. There’s a touch of sadness there. The stimulus was the casual, neutral question about eggs. But the stimulus has to mix with a lot of other causes: stress, sensitivity to criticism from growing up with a fault-finding parent, guilt about not paying more attention to household things. All those factors had to combine to produce the irritation, tension, and sadness you felt. Insight is seeing, in the moment, how your mind colored your perceptions and turbocharged your emotions.

Shift attention away from external causes -- like what someone said to you. Look for causes inside your own mind, such as how you interpret what was said, attribute intentions to the speaker, or feel especially prickly because of your history with that person. Ask yourself: Below the hard and defended stuff like anger or justifications, what am I really wanting, deep down? What material here is from a time when I was younger? What am I trying to control that's not controllable? How is my gender, temperament, culture, or personality shaping my reactions? With practice, insight improves and reactivity abates.

For the rest of why and how to have insight, see the post: Have Insight.

See also our SPIRITUAL PRACTICE DIRECTORY