This past week one of Chaplain Bruce Paul shared the poem, “And the people stayed home” by Kitty O’Meara. Kitty said, “I do not take credit for this. I know that a greater power than I seized my words, my spirit, the moment and put it out there. I really don’t take the credit other than that I was receptive and I wrote it and I posted it”

The poem is a reflection, a memory, a reality, a lament, a celebration…it is in fact exactly what you need it to be at this moment in time. Read these words, share them with a friend or many friends, recite it to your children, your parents, your partner or send it to your boss, your coworkers and colleagues. Where do you think you’ll and where do you want to be when the danger passes?

“And the people stayed home” by Kitty O’Meara

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.