This poem may have been written by Kathleen O’Mara in 1868 or 1918. And it may have been updated by Kitty O’Meara, a college professor in early 2020. Either way, it speaks volumes about the world yesterday and today.

And people stayed at 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.
Someone met their shadows.

And the people began to think differently. And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people living ignorant, dangerous, mindless
and heartless ways, the earth also began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made new choices
and dreamed of new images, and created new ways
to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

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