Grateful this day that, in isolation, I am able to connect with famly and friends. Grateful my adult children have concern and want to come see me; while balancing the reality that we all must stay where we are; for the greater good. Growing concern of the realities of this virus and the impact on so many levels. My heart breaks today for my friend’s nephew has now had a positive test for COVID-19; and now his family cannot be connected, even through Zoom connection. Concern for those that had already been struggling and now are in worse situation; and those that are living paycheck to paycheck and now those paychecks will not come. So much fear and pain, whether people are infected with the virus or not. And in this time when so many wish to be together; isolation. Prayer tonight is a poem from John O’Donohue… "For Absence"
May you know that absence is alive with hidden presence, that nothing is ever lost or forgotten. May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo. May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere, where the presences that have left you dwell. May you be generous in your embrace of loss. May the sore well of grief turn into a seamless flow of presence. May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear from. May you have the courage to speak for the excluded ones. May you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life. May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words or false belonging. May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight are one. May your longing inhabit it’s dreams within the Great Belonging.
from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue
Originally Published to Facebook on March 24th, 2020 at https://www.facebook.com/creativecarolcelebrant/posts/147476003409266