Pandemic Free Zone

The Importance of Creating an Emotionally Safe Space

I remember when the Twin Towers went down on September 11, 2001. I was sound asleep when my daughter called me to tell me what happened.

“Mom! Turn on the television! Something horrible has happened!”

“What channel?”

“Any channel!”

I remember the feeling of shock as I watched the plane fly into the building and then saw the building crumble into dust. It was awful and everyone in America felt the terror of being attacked on our own soil. We had no idea what was coming next. Was it the start of a war? Was more coming?

For days that film of the plane flying into the tower was shown repeatedly and everyone was talking about it. Everyone was afraid.

That is when I stopped watching the news. I did it for the safety of my own mental health. I couldn’t watch that horror even one more time or listen to the speculation. I was also sick of the anti-Arab movement that started.

Now we are experiencing another unprecedented event, a pandemic. This time, it isn’t just the United States, it’s the whole world sharing the horror of a new virus.

I stopped watching the news almost nineteen years ago, but everywhere I look, I see Covid-19. There is no escape. Where I live in…