There’s something wonderful happening. I have the feeling that it must be the same everywhere. I hope that it is. I keep seeing people coming together under one banner, helping each other, caring about strangers, showing love and compassion in so many ways.

It’s as if a seed has been sown in the midst of this crisis. As terrible a loss as COVID-19 has caused, there's something precious and necessary that can be gained from it. All of us coming together as one people may be what saves this planet and the human beings who live on it. There’s an opportunity here. If we miss what may be a last chance to love and trust each other, future generations, as well as our own, will have to suffer because of that mistake.

This opportunity is clothed in a hard darkness that, to speak plainly, kills with no mercy. It can easily take all that we love and leave behind nothing but grief, doubt, and questions. But somewhere within this nightmare, we needed to rise to the occasion, not only to deal with the present crisis but future ones as well. We needed to show ourselves how life can be and who we really are. The miracle is that we did just that and continue to do so every day. We may not completely recognize yet that things can be different from now on, but there’s a whisper of it that’s growing louder. It’s beginning to dawn on us that a new day is here and that there’s light now to guide us home.

And that light has always been love. We are so much more than we think we are. We are capable of being so much more than we’ve been. We will overcome this latest threat to humanity but into the life that follows, let’s take the love that we’ve learned. We can’t afford to leave it behind.


The song below came from two sources: the thoughts expressed above and being asked to do the music for a video. The video is just the beginning of a project called “Étreinte(s)” that Jenny Lepage has been planning on working on for a long time. The English word would be “Embrace,” but there are other levels to the meaning of the French word. The lyrics to the song for the video are there on YouTube and below. Here’s a link to her video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shiSFLdxLu8

To download the song, Embrace Me From Afar, as an mp3 file, right click on the link and select Save Link As.

Because of what it’s saying, I’d like this song to be heard by as many people as possible. Please feel free to spread it around. As with the rest of my work, it’s free.

Embrace Me From Afar

I wish that I could hold you close to me,
Banish all our fear so we can see
The answer that is waiting for us all.
Listen and you’ll hear it softly call.

Here and there and everywhere I see
That us and them is now becoming we.
They say it's always darkest before dawn
And I can feel a sunrise coming on.

Embrace me from afar.
Embrace who you really are.
It might seem like there’s just you and just me,
But everyone, everywhere now has a chance to see
That if we embrace each other from afar
And all of us are feeling the one thing that we are,
There is nothing now that we cannot be
When love for each other finally sets our hearts free.

Perhaps, within hard times, a seed was sown
For those who’ve lost their way on their way home
And we have always only been just one
And only love when all is said and done.

Here and there and everywhere I see
That us and them is now becoming we.
They say it's always darkest before dawn
And I can feel a sunrise coming on.

Embrace me from afar.
Embrace who you really are.
It might seem like there’s just you and just me,
But everyone, everywhere now has a chance to see
That if we embrace each other from afar
And all of us are feeling the one thing that we are,
There is nothing now that we cannot be
When love for each other finally sets our hearts free.