At this amazing moment in history, everyone in the world—not just our neighborhood or city or state or country—has the same thing on our mind. No matter who we talk to, we have one thing in common. So say hi, ask people you never talk to how they’re doing, give a nod of recognition that acknowledges what we’re going through together.

If you can, share the wealth. If you have an income, good health, connections to resources, help someone else. Tip big, pay the people who provide services even if they can’t right now, give to food banks, check on neighbors. Instead of hoarding, give away what you don’t need for yourself.

Take a moment to look around. The urge is to stick to routine, to shut out what is happening by doing. But this is a remarkable time to be human. It’s okay to sit and absorb, to acknowledge what’s going on, to resist the urge to push the fear away by not accepting the magnitude of the situation. It’s hard to live with the uncertainty of the future, but we can try to grasp the here and now.

Leslie Larson grew up in San Diego, California, in a working- class family. She is the author of Slipstream, which Dorothy Allison called, “A genuinely startling novel that caught me up in the lives of people used to being looked past, over, or beyond.” The New York Times called her second novel, Breaking Out of Bedlam, “a kick.”A veteran editor and copywriter for independent publishers, Leslie is the recipient of an Astraea Foundation Award and a Hedgebrook Writing Residency. She has taught writing nationwide and her work has appeared in O (The Oprah Magazine), Faultline, the East Bay Express, More magazine, Writer magazine, and the Women’s Review of Books, among other publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her spouse, Carla Trujillo.