Margie Dorn

“This poem was written by Kathleen O'Mara in 1869, and reprinted during 1919 Flu Pandemic.

And people stayed at home
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.”
― Kathleen O'Mara

“Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?
Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself continually?”
― Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2

“There are no useful self-help books on being holy.”
― Rowan Williams, Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life

“How did orders, whether federal, state, or local, meant to protect public health ever come to be seen as a restriction of rights or liberty? It happens when freedom becomes license unbounded by concern for others.”
― William Schweiker