Like everyone, I continue to wrestle with despair and hope, with blaming and acceptance, with wonder and resignation. I have had to stop listening to the terrible news -- which doesn't even seem new any more. I don't want to ignore the terror, but the relentlessness is difficult. Something in me also wants to find solace, of course. And, I did find solace in this poem that has been making the rounds on the internet. (and isn't it lovely how people are turning to poetry so often these days!). Despite the fact that terrible suffering and loss have certainly and will certainly continue to happen, something in me wants to also hang onto the fact that we COULD be changed in positive ways by this very unusual situation where we find ourselves. May we all continue to make our way toward healing and hoping... to that end, I thank the author of this poem by Kitty O'Meara...
And the people stayed home. And
read books, and listened, and rested,
and exercised, and made art, and
played games, and learned new
ways of being, and were still. And
listened more deeply. Some
meditated, some prayed, some
danced. Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think
differently. And the people healed. And, in the
absence of people living in ignorant,
dangerous, mindless, and heartless
ways, the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed, and
the people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made
new choices, and dreamed new
images, and created new ways to
live and heal the earth fully, as they
had been healed. ~ Kitty O’Meara, Madison, WI