Can You Hear the Birds Sing?

If we had any doubts that this virus would affect each and everyone of us, I suspect the reality has now seeped in and we know that indeed, our daily lives have changed. It’s the very weird experience of seeing with our own eyes empty grocery shelves, closed signs on churches, restaurants, and movie theaters, and the red X’s on our calendars of trips, events and meetings. 

My thoughts are swirling with how me and my family are going to manage this extremely challenging situation. Our mothers would tell us, “Figure out how to make the best of it.” My wise brother asks, “How will we look on the other side of all of this?” And in the poem, Lockdown, the poet prompts us to, “Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.”

I know this is a great test of my stress management skills. Can I focus on what I can control? Can I acknowledge my feelings of anxiety without letting these feelings overwhelm me to the point that I fight, flight or freeze? Can I do the things I know will make me feel better and not default to worrying in front of the television? As I ponder, plan, and practice my intentions in the next few days, I’ll share my experiences and would love to hear how you’re making the best of it. 

Today, I want to share a touching poem that is worth printing and posting. It is a powerful guide on how we can approach this crisis together. This line moved my heart, “They say that in 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.” Isn’t that the most lovely image? It’s just one of the hope-filled messages Friar Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan priest-friar who lives in Ireland, shares in his poem, 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 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 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 doesn’t have to be meanness.

Yes there is sickness

But there doesn’t 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.