19/3/20 - Today's haiku:

Birdsong getting strong

Spring? Or do they celebrate?

Walking boots are on

As I go out to the garden in the mornings for my yoga practice, I notice that the birdsong has been getting louder these last days. Is this just because spring is coming or are they celebrating that the air is cleaner and fresher due to the reduction in traffic from the coronavirus travel restrictions?

As for me, I’ve got on my stout walking boots and am ready to go out and connect (carefully and safely) with my neighbours, fellow citizens and local small business people to hear their reactions and intentions regarding their Covid-19 response, so that I can join the fight – not directly against the virus but for the maintenance of hope, social cohesion, care for the vulnerable and local democracy.

I’m also reminded of when I attended Oxford City’s Citizens Assembly on the climate emergency and there is one positive thing that all such gatherings of ordinary people look forward to the most when they imagine a future world without carbon emissions pollution: that’s birdsong.

I’m also very conscious that the two places that have had the highest number of Covid-19 deaths, Wuhan and Northern Italy, are areas that HAD very high levels of air pollution eg nitrogen dioxide which is known to cause respiratory sickness.