This song was written in the first part of 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, and many of us were living in the first of what became mandatory lockdowns. Words are by Kitty O’Meara, who lives in the United States and whom I have never met, but who has graciously allowed me, and many others, to set the words from her prayer, ‘In the time of Pandemic’, to music.
As I update this note in September 2022, much has changed since April 2020. And yet much hasn’t. The coronavirus COVID-19 is still well and truly with us. The tensions between many of us over whether to take the vaccine or not, whether to continue to wear masks or not, how best to manage the virus in our overloaded health care systems, still remain. I wrote at the time that this song won’t fit for everyone. People who are isolated at home and who are deeply lonely, or living with domestic violence, or people who are homeless, won’t have cause to celebrate the isolation that lockdown caused many of us to stay at home. People who are trying to work from home as well as home-school children might feel too frustrated to enjoy the thought of staying at home, as might people who have lost their jobs and wonder how they can survive.
I look back at this song a little over two years later and wonder whether, now, if it was all just a fantasy, the possibility of healing the world and living in hope. Of course some of it was fantasy. But it is also important to not give up on hope. As this song came about because of how I felt at the time, the following words are therefore replicated from what I wrote on this website in April 2020.
Please note that you can also listen to this song and see the words on Youtube at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4iDKIo6tsk
Notes from April 2020
Words by Kitty O'Meara l Music composed and arranged by Peta Williams l Lead vocal: Leigh Gardiner (recorded in isolation) l Harmony vocals: Leigh Gardiner and Graeme Gardiner (recorded in isolation) l Piano played by Peta Williams l Other instruments realised digitally by Peta Williams l Mixed and mastered remotely by Andy Busuttil, Blue Mountain Sound (in isolation) https://bluemountainsound.com.au/
This song was written in the first part of 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. Words are by Kitty O’Meara, who lives in the United States and whom I have never met, but who has graciously allowed me, and many others, to set the words from her prayer, ‘In the time of Pandemic’, to music.
Why are so many of us drawn to her words, her prayer, at the time of the COVID-19 corona virus pandemic? What is it that resonates so with us?
For me, it is because her words offer a sense of optimism and hope. Despite the horror and the great loss of life across the world we have experienced in the last few months of the pandemic, despite the grief and disappointment as our lives are turned upside down, there is reason to hope that we will come through this and be better people, and contribute to healing the earth that gives us sustenance and life.
This song won’t fit for everyone.
People who are isolated at home or living with domestic violence; people who are homeless, won’t have cause to celebrate the isolation that is causing many of us to stay at home. People who are trying to work from home as well as home-school children might feel too frustrated to enjoy the thought of staying at home, as might people who have lost their jobs and wonder how they can survive.
And yet.
For those of us who are living safely at home, and despite our own disappointments and struggles and feelings of frustration and grief around what might have been but cannot be, I hope that Kitty’s words and my music might bring solace and optimism so that we will get through this difficult time together, and come out the other end having thought differently about how we can better live our lives, nourish our spirits, and how we can support the earth that gives us sustenance and life.
The possibility of hope.
Note: This song has not been created for material or commercial gain. It has been created out of love.
Words
In the Time of Pandemic - A prayer by Kitty O’Meara
At the time of the COVID-19 corona virus pandemic, 2020 My prayer.... “And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and grew gardens full of fresh food, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. "And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal. "And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed."
Kitty O'Meara