[Viva] Fwd: reaching out

[shelly tognazzini]

Hugs all. 🦋🦅❤️🐚. Peggy sent me this. 💖

 Lockdown

Yes there is fear.

Yes there is isolation.

Yes there is panic buying.

Yes there is sickness.

Yes there is even death.

But,

They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise

You can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet

The sky is no longer thick with fumes

But blue and grey and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi

People are singing to each other

across the empty squares,

keeping their windows open

so that those who are alone

may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland

Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.

Today a young woman I know

is busy spreading fliers with her number

through the neighbourhood

So that the elders may have someone to call on.

Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples

are preparing to welcome

and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary

All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting

All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way

All over the world people are waking up to a new reality

To how big we really are.

To how little control we really have.

To what really matters.

To Love.

So we pray and we remember that

Yes there is fear.

But there does not have to be hate.

Yes there is isolation.

But there does not have to be loneliness.

Yes there is panic buying.

But there does not have to be meanness.

Yes there is sickness.

But there does not have to be disease of the soul

Yes there is even death.

But there can always be a rebirth of love.

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.

Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic

The birds are singing again

The sky is clearing,

Spring is coming,

And we are always encompassed by Love.

Open the windows of your soul

And though you may not be able

to touch across the empty square,

Sing.

Brother Richard Hendrick in Ireland
Mar 13, 2020



* A Song from the Patio*

*I too sing to you across my patio where,*

*Oblivious to human fear and tragedy,*

*The Camillias bloom.*

*I sing across the isolation I feel, sending love to you,*

*Perhaps not so isolated, on Prior street.*
*Arbutus, though never a busy artery, is quieter than normal*

*Its pulse beating to a slower, easier rhythm.*
*But on its edge, my wild plum and cherries are busy blooming,*

*Enticing bees and birds,  *
*The brave birds, hummers and all, sing and soar along their paths in the
sky,*

*Heralding spring.*
*They seem to say,*

*We have survived the rigors of cruel winter,*

*To sing and soar one season more.*

*This too shall pass.*

*Locking down is not Nature’s way. *

*In our frenzied life, chasing the glitter of wealth and success, we lock
her out.*


- Peggy Frank

Now seeing the morning sun rise from 1103-139 Clarence
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/139+Clarence+St.,+Victoria,+BC+V8V2J1?entry=gmail&source=g>
 St., Victoria, BC V8V2J1
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/139+Clarence+St.,+Victoria,+BC+V8V2J1?entry=gmail&source=g>

“

*I have been and still am a seeker,but I have ceased to question stars
and books;I have begun to listen to the teachings*
*My blood whispers to me.*”
- Herman Hesse
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