An Irish-French Catholic writer composed the following poem concerning her recollections of living through the Great Famine as a young girl. The message of hope is apt for the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic crisis enveloping our world. Thank you, Kitty.

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.

Kathleen O’Meara [aka Grace Ramsay]

(1839 – 1888)