Letter to the Editor:
And the People Stayed Home
Dear Editor,
As we struggle, adjust, give deepest thanks for all of our first responders and to all who work in pharmacies, grocery stores and other essential services, we must continue to show compassion and acts of kindness to all in our circle of family and our community. We are dreaming and hoping that we will get through this and have a bright future. At times we feel helpless, confused and afraid as did Kitty O'Meara as the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly unfolded in her world. Kitty O'Meara has a life long interest in writing. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her five rescue dogs and husband William. She is a retired teacher and chaplin. She recently wrote the following prose poem in one sitting. I often re-read it with hope in my heart and mind.
"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 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."
With thanks to Kitty O'Meara,
Jim Hollingworth, M.D.
Goderich, Ontario
As we struggle, adjust, give deepest thanks for all of our first responders and to all who work in pharmacies, grocery stores and other essential services, we must continue to show compassion and acts of kindness to all in our circle of family and our community. We are dreaming and hoping that we will get through this and have a bright future. At times we feel helpless, confused and afraid as did Kitty O'Meara as the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly unfolded in her world. Kitty O'Meara has a life long interest in writing. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her five rescue dogs and husband William. She is a retired teacher and chaplin. She recently wrote the following prose poem in one sitting. I often re-read it with hope in my heart and mind.
"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 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."
With thanks to Kitty O'Meara,
Jim Hollingworth, M.D.
Goderich, Ontario