I studied world religions in college, but I found Buddhism when I needed it most – in 1999 when my world imploded with a layoff and divorce.

Every week at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Chicago, I would sit in the darkened room with a few other struggling souls meditating in silence or chanting to the beat of a deep drum with tears nobody could see streaming down my face.

This room and these practices were a balm for my ravaged soul.

Our teacher jokingly said few people come to Buddhism when things are going well.

Flash forward 20 years and the upside-down world that is our life during this pandemic.