{"id":10541,"date":"2021-06-15T13:14:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T20:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=10541"},"modified":"2021-06-15T13:15:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T20:15:02","slug":"post-pandemic-songs-and-second-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/post-pandemic-songs-and-second-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Pandemic Songs and Second Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Deb Fenwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After fifteen months, it\u2019s time to soar. A hundred, a thousand, millions of voices are calling, inviting us to share in a common song. There\u2019s a brilliant bright light and an invitation to hope after all the darkness\u2014to hope and to imagine possibilities. It\u2019s a resonant call to lift off and soar. And it originates from that other place.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a place of community where we remember our interconnectedness. It\u2019s a place where there\u2019s an agreement to work together to make something that transcends what one individual, no matter how magnificent, can do on their own. It\u2019s a place where you work toward something with others, and it takes on its own magic. You can see it in a choir\u2019s chorus or a road crew building a bridge. It\u2019s there as an emergency room team saves a life, and as food pantry volunteers pack boxes. It\u2019s that place where energy is transferred and transmuted as it moves from one heart to another. It\u2019s a place where there\u2019s enough joy to lift a spirit, raise a roof, and change the vibration of the planet, all at once.\u00a0

This new phase can be our song. It\u2019s a second chance. After all the darkness of a global pandemic we squint, almost in disbelief, as we lift our faces toward the light. Yes, we\u2019ve made it. Even if we stumbled through losses no one could predict. Even if, some days, we felt like giving up as we struggled with shades drawn. Now, we can choose to work together to lift ourselves and others higher. Because we\u2019ve traveled through dark times, we reflect and remember. We honor those who didn\u2019t make it by vowing to love more, forgive fully and listen deeply. All we have to do is look and listen because there\u2019s harmony present when we look to the light and listen to the music. Thank goodness for every second chance and every song that makes a heart soar. We\u2019ve made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing inspired after listening to \u201cBaba Yetu<\/a>\u201d sung in Swahili by the Stellenbosch University Choir<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deb Fenwick<\/strong> is a Chicago-born writer who currently lives in Oak Park, Illinois. After spending nearly thirty years working as an arts educator, school program specialist, youth advocate, and public school administrator, she now finds herself with ample time to read books by her heroes and write every story that was patiently waiting to be told. When she\u2019s not traveling with her heartthrob of a husband or dreaming up wildly impractical adventures with her intrepid, college-age daughter, you\u2019ll find her out in the garden getting muddy with two little pups.   <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Deb Fenwick After fifteen months, it\u2019s time to soar. A hundred, a thousand, millions of voices are calling, inviting us to share in a common song. There\u2019s a brilliant bright light and an invitation to hope after all the darkness\u2014to hope and to imagine possibilities. It\u2019s a resonant call to lift off and soar. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1474],"tags":[1559,1190],"class_list":["post-10541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sparks","tag-deb-fenwick","tag-writing-freely-just-write-writing-prompts-the-write-spot-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2K1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10549,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10541\/revisions\/10549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}