Quarantined, Day 5

So far, no symptoms, and so far so good.  I have decided to treat this time as a kind of spiritual retreat, given all the enforced solitude and stillness and quietness.  I actually like this.  I am also more present to friends, especially in Colombia, where they are enduring a particularly harsh lockdown by authorities.  One is Alonso, who was my host and was particularly kind to me during my three weeks recently in Colombia.  The other is Juan, a young man who lives on the Caribbean coast.  two very special people, and particularly dear friends.

On the other hand, there is the getting through each day.  Not everyone can stay home all the time.  The people that tell us we have to do this, themselves, are reasonably well off, and live in spacious houses or condominiums, and like all people who live well, they seem always to assume that everyone else enjoys their privilege.  Privilege makes the privileged blind, and usually helps them stay blind.  Some of us live in tiny apartments, and two weeks spent inside less than 300 square feet could induce trauma.

I have also found that it is possible to have it both ways.  I will give you, Gentle Reader, exactly thirty seconds to stop jeering and hooting and catcalling.  You still have twenty seconds... ten seconds...five seconds...Now all of you shut up and listen!  Times of crisis really bring out black and white thinking.  One  of the purposes of this blog is to work against black and white thinking.  To get you, my Gentle Reader, to learn not only to think in shades of grey, but even better...I want you to learn to think in colour. 

When I leave my apartment, I take the stairs, not the elevator, to avoid  contact with tenants.  When I step outside, I look both ways.  If someone approaches within two meters, I step back.  Then I take a side street.  If there are others on the same side, I cross over, to keep distance, and I continue walking on quiet side streets, staying away from others, though I still say hi to strangers, if from a safe distance, because it is essential that we find safe ways to connect.   I go to neighbourhoods or parks where there are few people, and if I have to shop, I always keep a safe distance from shoppers and staff.  I am avoiding public transit during this time, so I have to buy just small quantities of things as I will always be walking.  The way I am doing this is safe, and protects me and others from infection,  If you don't like it,m Gentle Reader,m then too bad for you.  If you really don't like it, then here is my recommendation for you:

Simply print off this blog post.  Given the shortage of toilet paper, since the reptilian brained are going to hoard irrationally, next time you have to sit on the toilet, there it is.  Wipe your butt with my blog, for all I care! 

And now, I will share with you a poem song that I wrote during my last two days in Monteverde, Cost Rica:


We're more than nothing

We are children of the earth

formed of the dust from the ground

More than nothing

at the moment of birth

primal cry that echoes the sound

of the anthem

piercing the dark night

exploding in brilliant dying stars

We are children of the light

sons and daughters of peace

and our cries echoing the primal song

of our earliest beginnings

before the worlds were spinning

on the silence  of the love that made us all

We are more than nothing

We are children of fire

flames of gold that warm and destroy

tongues of burning flame

that purge us of our shame

making pure our most intimate desire

sparks from the sun

igniting all the earth

into one great incandescent flame

We are children of the light

sons and daughters of peace

and our cries echoing the primal song

of our earliest beginnings

before the worlds were spinning

on the silence of the love that made us all.

We are children of the water

the torrent´s sons and daughters

drowning in mute baptismal joy

Children of the rain, offspring of the dew

and nothing will ever destroy

the primeval garden

that flourishes again

Eden reborn and restored

We are children of the light

sons and daughters of peace

and our cries echoing the primal song

of our earliest beginnings

before the worlds were spinning

on the silence of the love that made us all

We are children of the air

carried on the wind

like seeds of life that scatter on the ground

Winds of hurricanes, and morning summer breeze

the love that blows across the earth

So the spirit blows, messages of love

very breath of the very living God

We are children of the light

sons and daughters of peace

and our cries still echo the primal song

of our earliest beginnings

before the worlds were spinning

on the silent love that sustains us all

We are sustained by the silent love

We are sustained by the silent peace

We are sustained by the silent joy