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Posts Tagged ‘Pandemic’

Living in the same space, looking at the same walls, seeing the same people, doing the same things day after day after day, the hidden things have taken on more importance. 

The lacy red bra that I wear under my comfy sweater during interminable video calls, the moments of silent prayer that sustain me when I hear yet more discouraging news, the inner voice that reminds me to cage up those monkeys jumping around inside my head telling me what I should do, can do, what I have left undone, should not have done… The quiet practices that help me maintain my sense of calm and my sense of joy – walking, reading, praying, connecting, talking, writing, sleeping, rest, creative work.

And an inner sense of loving humour to forgive and laugh my way through my daily stumbles –  forgeting to unmute on that call, mixing up the clean and dirty laundry, imagining I can do twelve hours work in seven, handling the unexpected bubbling up of grief, realising yet again I have absolutely no idea what we are having for dinner, binge watching five episodes of that show because the remote was just slightly out of reach. 

And wondering what those terribly serious people on the video call would say if they knew that I put on that lacy red bra just for them.

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It has been a week of dogs barking

A season, really, of dogs barking

Relentless, repetitive barking

A background for video calls and teleconferences

Barking overlaying the neighbour’s blaring of Bohemian Rhapsody

Barking accompanying the thump, thump, thump

Of the teen playing solitary basketball

Barking among the endless news broadcasts

The counting and recounting of electoral colleges 

Barking drowned out by shrieking sirens

Descending on tragedy at a senior’s house

Barking replaced by mournful howling

Tugging our hearts toward loss and grief

Calling out the losses of this world

These politics, that unrepentant anger

Our mourning of death and courage

Voicing losses of pandemic and civility

Collective voices drowned out

By a cacophony of television, radio, social media

And dogs barking

Yet beyond loss and adversity

Companionship, compassion, courage

And a deliberate, determined, grounded calm

One collective deep breath

Two

Three

and the dogs begin their barking again

A new empathy for neighbours

Struggling with isolation and loss

Anxiety and fear 

And the sound of dogs barking 

Dogs who voice our sadness and loneliness

Our hopelessness and anger

Our frustration and defiance

Our determined stance to hold our ground

Our insistence on being joyful and vital

Compassionate, creative, caring

In the face of everything

This world throws at us

Even

Dogs barking.


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