and the people stayed home
Today, I’m turning the blog over to the writing of retired teacher and chaplain Kitty O’Meara of Madison, Wisconsin. Her poem “And the people stayed home” has been making the rounds on social media, passed along by the likes of Deepak Chopra and Oprah. It resonates, so I’m sharing it on this quarantine Sunday as an optimistic meditation on our moment in history.
And the people stayed home
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
(Image stolen from the Internet: Africa Studio/Shutterstock)