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And people stayed home.............




Living as we do in the shadow of what is sometimes referred to as ‘the entertainment capital of the world’, Las Vegas under shutdown due to the Covid-19 virus is eerily quiet and empty.  

 As I stand in my backyard in Seven Hills and see the outline of the city in the distance, hear the comforting sound of mocking birds singing their tunes and the sound of water falling over the spillway into the pool, life here in the desert seems so normal and ordinary.  But these are anything but normal times.  The pandemic has cities, states and countries under lock down with orders to practice social distancing, a term most of us never heard of or would have ever practiced as suburban and urban dwellers.   
A well-read and perhaps more spiritual friend of mine shared a poem on social media that struck me deeply.  It is a poem of a totally different era and circumstance but it so beautifully speaks to the hope of better days ahead for all of us now.  The author is Kathleen O’Meara, pen name Grace Ramsay.  She was an Irish-French writer and biographer during the late Victorian era from 1839-1888. 
O’ Meara wrote works of fiction where she explored a variety of topics from women’s suffrage to eastern European revolutions.  This poem appeared in her second novel “Iza’s Story” about the struggle of Polish patriots against Russian, Austrian and German occupation. The book compares the Polish-Russian situation to the Irish-British situation and praises the revolt of a small nation against a great neighbor.   I hope you find the poem as reflective and hopeful for our times as I did. 

And People Stayed Home -- A poem by Kathleen O’Meara (1839–1888).

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 stopped
and listened deeper

someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
someone met their shadow

and people began to think differently
and people healed
and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways,
dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
even the earth began to heal

and when the danger ended
and people found each other
grieved for the dead people
and they made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways of life
and healed the earth completely
just as they were healed themselves.




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