Soul Food

Despite the panic and loss from Covid 19 there is positivity around us. Families are spending quality time together, people are forming communities, whether from their balconies or on-line, (choirs, exercise etc) and nature is recuperating from the clutches of pollution ...

The lockdown in Venice might have filled the air with gloom, but the canals in Venice are clear, residents in Krakow have been enjoying views of the Tatra mountains again (previously covered by the city's smog), China's reduction of air pollution can be seen from space and they have suspended the trade in wildlife to combat the outbreak.

We have been blessed with spring sunshine flooding our cities and the countryside in the UK and the chance for daily exercise to go out in it and breathe in the fresh air. The sky has been bluer, without the aeroplane vapours and people in London have commentated that without the noise of traffic and aeroplanes they have heard birdsong for the first time.

In the peace and stillness of the countryside the wind in the branches, the flap of a birds wing, the croak of a solitary frog, the buzz of an insect, all seem amplified, one can almost hear nature growing. And the sky is so deeply blue. If you currently look up at night, the lone evening planet of Venus is stealing the show as it glows even more brightly. Nearly all of the elements that make up the human body were formed in stars. And at a time when everything is springing to life, from buds and blossoms to the crack of new life emerging from eggs, we have time to really immerse ourselves and observe the marvels of each and every creature and contemplate our very essence and relationship with all life on this amazing earth.