(photo P Volker)
It is so apparent that we all have a part to play in this saga. So thank you for what you are doing right now and today and onward to make this thing happen in the best possible manner. We can do this, we must do this!
Ronaldo our Caminoheads Bureau Chief in Astorga, Spain on the banks of the Camino de Santiago. It is his turn to put up a post on this Friday, the third in our month of March. He thought that it would be appropriate to feature this wonderful new poem by Lynn Ungar. Felipé.x
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
—
Ron Angert in beautiful Astorga, Spain
Thank you, Phil, and Ron, for sharing that powerful poem. I held my breath reading it. I plan to print it out and pray it over and over. Comfort and blessings to you, and to all who read these comments.
Henriette ~ so glad you are here with us. Let’s line up a phone call on the next rainy day. I think that is Monday. I’m going full speed on outdoor projects here making hay while the sun shines. Hang tough there, Felipé.x
Dear Phil,
I know this doesn’t sound right, but I am sort of loving a part of what is going on… definitely, not the pandemic and the fear and the death and the exhausted health care professionals and isolation some people are suffering… but this other part… this awakening we are all experiencing… PFJ said that this was something affecting all of us, no matter race, age, wealth,… this wonderful text from Ronaldo highlighting the need for a “break”, this opportunity to spend time at home and “meet” your own family, get to know your own children, or parents, this cleaning of the pollution of the air, and the water in the channels in Venice… the solidarity of neighbors singing the Happy Birthday in Madrid to Charo, their 80 years old neighbor isolated by herself scared to death, the opera singer in Italy, and the sense of community over there and honestly, everywhere…
I read this that Ron posted in his facebook, and I loved it. And thanks to Ron, I did my tiny contribution to all this. That sentence “Know that our lives are in one another’s hands” made me say yes to a phone call I had yesterday evening asking to go to the Children’s hospital for a blood donation this morning. The technicians there and everywhere there is a realistic concern that this pandemic will deplete the blood banks. First because if they had the infection, they won’t be able to donate, and also because people are scared of going to places where the virus may be. Even if this is isolated from the hospital. I was moved to see hospital admins donating blood. There are so many heros out there.
Let’s keep this going… it says the habit makes the monk, right? This virus is going nowhere anytime soon, so it will give us the chance to be kind multiple times, and maybe, we will end in the habit.
HEROS Loves,
Cris
Cris ~ so glad the we all have each other to inspire. We are going to come up with some great stuff I predict. Keep in touch loves, Felipé.x