Last week, a few different people texted this sweet poem to me. I was moved by the words I read and so I set what they sent to me, word for word, to music, and shared it online a day or two later.
“And people stayed home......
and read books and listened and rested and exercised
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and stopped
and listened deeper
someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
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,
even the earth began to heal
and when the danger ended
and people found each other
grieved for the dead people
and they made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways of life
and healed the earth completely
just as they were healed themselves........”
- ‘And People Stayed Home’ by Kathleen O’Meara…written in 1869, after the Irish famine.
A day or two later, I found out that it wasn’t true... It wasn’t written a hundred-plus years ago by a writer during a difficult time. Instead, it was written last month by a woman here in the US during a difficult time. The people who sent it to me didn’t know that, nor did I. We were just sharing something that moved us. That touched us. In a time when we need to see the hope in the fear that at times feels like is surrounding us/the internet, the sharing of information with no way to know truth, from fiction can be incredibly disappointing.
Still the poem is beautiful and poignant, whenever it was written.
“And People Stayed Home” written by Kitty O’Meara in March, 2020
- Rory Feek
For more from Rory, watch his show “This Life I Live” every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. ET on RFD-TV and WatchRFDTV.com.