Day 238 of Year 2 (Actually Day 243)
Poet Lynn Ungar posted a beautiful, comforting poem today on Facebook. Many people are scared and disturbed by the corona virus and all the cancellations and potential sickness. There is so much uncertainty and things feel out of control. I am in the high risk category, but I'm trying not to worry too much, just a little 🙂. Over all my years of dealing with illness, I've learned you can't let a possible future steal your present moment. We can’t control what events happen to us, but we can control how we chose to meet them. Ungar’s poem helped me today. I hope you find comfort in it too.
Pandemic
By Lynn Ungar
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
This was published on Facebook, but checkout Ungar's book Bread and Other Miracles https://amzn.to/2IDCGov