Here is a poem written by a retired chaplain and former teacher, Kitty O'Meara, who lives with her husband and five dogs near Madison, Wisconsin. It took Kitty O’Meara about 20 minutes to write a soulful description of the world staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Something Lovely
And people stayed home
and read books and listened
and rested and exercised
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and were still
and listened more deeply
someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
someone met their own shadowand people started thinking differently----
And people healed...
And in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways
dangerous, mindless and heartless....
The earth began to heal---
And when the danger endedand people found themselves...
They grieved for the dead
and they made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways to live
and heal the earth fully
just as they had been healed.
Kitty O'Meara (2020)
Photo Credit: Library of Congress