Virology
And now comes mortality
In the form of a tiny virus
Hitching a ride on a droplet through the air.
Just a small bit of DNA.
Floating within the fragility of our human limits;
It comes and spreads with lightening speed
Across the artificial boundaries we have cut
on the sharp edge of politics and tribalism.
It is simply indifferent in its replication
And search for the next host;
Biology at work, unfolding in its own time,
A slave to nobody's timetable.
Not the great world economy
(Certainly not America's),
Not the ego orations of so-called world leaders,
Not even partisan posturing,
Can alter the trajectory of simple transmission.
In all great threats to humanity and civilization,
It is left to us to decide how to live.
How to be human in the midst of the unknown.
Yet, it has always been so, even in the best of times.
This too shall pass, not without profound loss.
Shall we learn from the humbling experience?
What else waits in the wings
And cares not for our illusions of grandeur?
Some retreat to their fortresses;
They stockpile arms and build walls.
Surely, they say in their fear
It is better to be protected and locked in.
But the only thing equal to the task
Is compassion and love.
A call to the connective fibers
Linking person to person, heart to heart.
David Reid
March 29, 2020
________________________________
2020
Part of us has been broken
Entrapped in a splint
Made of masks, sanitizer, isolation
Our healer requires us to
Stretch, pull, bend
Assuring that with adherence to the orders
Patience, passage of time
The pain will diminish
We will be whole again.
C. Shorkey
4/23/20
_________________________________
Worthy Someday?
Cut from the little-league baseball team
And later eighth-grade basketball.
Skinny teen with ugly glasses and
Self-esteem / identity issues.
College dropout who worked much
To first put wife then self through college
And grad school with little student debt
Before buying current house debt free.
First love would not even consider me,
Early practice marriage lasted fourteen years.
Current wife and I raised two kids to fine adults,
Now we foster an infant in our late sixties.
Corporate consultant road warrior, frequent flyer,
To support the family and a future
Before creating then selling our own successful
Business for enough to retire in our fifties.
Now a reliable social justice volunteer,
Church leader and frequent blood donor.
Wondering what I yet must accomplish
To be worthy enough someday.
Jim Carillon
April 15, 2020
__________________________________
Where did I go?
vast vast space
widest broadest presence
one with all that is
can't hold it
or create it
just invite it
that which I know
disappears
weightless
body-less
drifting through
the ether
spiral rather
left than right
drop into the
infinite
that is
known
if only
for a moment
sudden return
in awe and grateful
time to feed the cat
(About meditation, more specifically coming back after a good one.)
Damaris Pierce
2020
_______________________________
Hopefully!
Gray, cool, light rain, still.
TV glaring with dis chord.
Congress fighting over lives versus commerce.
Spring without hope, worldwide Pandemic.
YET.
Earth day was yesterday.
The young people of the earth are active and hopeful.
If I turn from bad news to give
my attention to our Earth,
I will see budding and new pale, beautiful
leaves on all types of trees.
Wildflowers showing their trust in the future.
Rhododendrons with fat flower buds ready to burst open
and Azaleas and Mountain Laurels in full vibrant bloom,
displaying many different colors, a rainbow of colors.
Our air is pollution free, we can breathe and clearly see
the far off mountains, not seen for years.
Our rivers are so clear and clean that fish are
returning to spawn.
Our oceans and beaches are so clear and clean that sea
turtles are laying eggs and spawning more than in the
past 20 to 30 years. If we listen, we hear more birdsong than in years. Are the birds vocalizing more because they can be heard now that competition with human activity is halted?
Our own health can now improve with cleaner air to breathe and cleaner water to drink,
Even as we fight the virus disease and possible world hunger,
will the world notice the many positives this terrible virus is
leaving us? Will the world examine the why and how of
these positives? Will the world use this lesson to change our ways
and expectations and leave us actually wanting to decrease
our pollution and go “Green” worldwide. That would be one great positive to arise from this terrible world wide pandemic.
This is something to hope for, to pray for, to set
our expectations for, to ardently work for.
All for our own sake and for the sake of our wonderful and only home, our world.
If we do nothing - go back to our “old ways”, know that the
Earth does not need us for her to survive and thrive. We,
the people, are expendable. Our Earth will be just fine, probably better off without people.
I hope we are wise enough to see that and to take
appropriate action. I look to our young people to guide us.
I am hopeful and optimistic.
Be Love. Feel Love, Send Love.
Ann Sillman
2020
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"Tidings" is our Monthly Newsletter, a journal/magazine and place where we 
can share our thoughts and photos about things of interest to our Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley. Please submit articles of around 250 words to 
