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| photo by Bill Slavin |
Eerie, isn't it? To walk anywhere.
The streets empty of people.
As if we had disappeared.
While on a walk around the lake at a nearby business park, I looked at the empty passenger boat tied to a dock with no one waiting to board. Deserted restaurants lined the edge of the water and the quiet office buildings, bereft of workers, loomed over the lake. A mallard scooted itself away from me as I walked by and Canadian geese came in for a landing. They were the only living things moving around the lake except me.
Usually the property teams with people from the office buildings. Workers take breaks in the sunshine, sip coffee while engrossed in conversations, and check phones and laptops. Today, one person sat under the eaves next to the lake. Otherwise, the walking path and the buildings were empty.
What remained on the pathway around the center were shadows of trees.
The buildings and the manicured wild area only hinted at our existence.
Today we are shadows.
Tomorrow, we will be back, our lives touched in a way
few people have experienced.
What will we be like then?
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| photo by Bill Slavin |
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In response to my word prompt from last Friday, two thoughtful writers:
Teresa Caldwell wrote:
Together:
Who knew empty streets,
faces cloaked with masks,
Neighbors,
withdrawal from all but essential tasks,
fear of others,
pestilence or what may lie
within ourselves,
Could bring our world together;
All humanity on pause,
united, separated,
in a common cause.
Flo Rood, from GowitheFlo, wrote these words:
Together in companionable silence.
Together listening from afar,
Each in our own homes,
Contained.
Nothing forced.
Nothing prescribed.
Just what emerges from our hearts.
Silence is how hearts speak
"We are together"
"We are merged but intact"
"We are safe"
"I hear you."
Another wonderfully written observation of our world, Martha. Thank you. Today, I am practicing my Foundational hand (always good to go back to the basics to keep one's hand honest) and these are the words I am writing, from an unknown author:
ReplyDeleteWhen you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, don't say to yourself, “It looks like the end of the world." What you're seeing is love in action. What you're seeing, in that negative space, is how much we
do care for each other, for our grandparents, for our immuno-compromised brothers and sisters, for people we will never meet.
People will lose jobs over this. Some will lose their businesses. And some will lose their lives. All the more reason to take a moment, when you’re out on your walk, or on your way to the store, or just watching the news, to look into the emptiness and marvel at all of that love. Let it fill you and sustain you.
It isn't the end of the world. lt is the most remarkable act of global solidarity we may ever witness.
This statement is worth repeating. Thank you for posting it. And will you post your finished piece on your website?
DeleteToday, we are shadows. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Chandra, for the Wow. Coming from you that means a lot.
Delete