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In the time of coronavirus

A collection of stories submitted by the public on their experience of living through the time of the Coronavirus pandemic.
We are now safely through the first phase of response to coronavirus in New Zealand and people are reflecting on what this major and previously unimaginable global catastrophe has meant for us, as individuals, in the 21st century. Globally the losses and the scale of human suffering have been very great. This forum offers a space to reflect upon the experience and to consider questions such as: What are we learning from the pandemic? What might we need to remember and preserve? Through the alert levels our prime minister said repeatedly, ‘Stay safe, be kind.’ What was your experience, what did you observe, what mattered and how might we re-imagine a better direction going forward? If you would like to contribute to the re-collective effort please send me your reflections, observations, journal entries, stories to my contact page... just a page of A4 writing, with a title and a brief bio and they will be added to the repository of important writings flowering in this space.

The search for knowledge is.. an exercise in reminiscence, that is, an effort to recall and recollect that which we once knew.

Ahsivai Margalit quoted in Richard Horton, “The Ethics of Memory,” The Lancet, 6 June 2020

My Intentions: In the Time  Beyond Covid-19 by Pamela Gordon

20/5/2020

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:Pamela Gordon is currently in a ‘bubble of one. She lives on an organic farm near Puhoi. This poem is a snapshot of her thoughts during alert level 3 of Covid-19 lockdown.
 
My Intentions: In the Time Beyond Covid-19
 
‘Accepting what is’, is a good start.
It is futile to put up a resistance against ‘what is’.
Non-acceptance is a denial of life.
It is good sense, to say ‘yes’ to the ‘isness’.
 
I remember the serenity prayer,
‘To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference’.
 
The past has gone, the future never arrives,
.......except as the ‘now’. I am consciousness.
I shall consciously try to live in the present.
The ‘now’ is the only time I am actually alive.
I am my life.
I am life.
I am.
 
Staying connected, through my words, art, and music,
and sharing my talents, time and energy, is vital for me.
Pain and suffering will continue.
More awareness is needed in this uncertain future.
 
During this global pandemic, we continue to retreat
within our borders, our cities, our towns, our street.
I need to become more self-reliant and resilient,
and our farm, be more sustainable, self-sufficient.
 
My wider concern is for the health of the planet,
the well-being of humans, other living things,
and ecosystems... to avoid environmental collapse.
Coronavirus is only temporary.
 
Within this collective liminal space, I’m emptied.
Now, room for new ideas, my consciousness is changing.
Hopefully, I will emerge with new insights,
ways to create and be, in a healthy society.
 
Writing is my mid-wife to this transition and transformation.
Within this liminality, I need a focus, need direction.
I shall ‘follow my bliss’, find my place of joy,
stretch, and do what makes me feel most alive,
 
I shall nurture a sense of gratitude and humour,
harmony, peace, awe and wonder,
a sense of the sacred,
I shall honour life with unbridled vigour.
 
4 5 2020
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Copyright © 2017 Deborah Shepard
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact