LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
In these pandemic times, there's always music to help get us through.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS SONG, "THREE LITTLE BIRDS")
GARCIA-NAVARRO: We asked you to tell us about a song that's bringing you comfort or keeping you motivated. Today, a Bob Marley and the Wailers classic, "Three Little Birds."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THREE LITTLE BIRDS")
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS: (Singing) Don't worry about a thing 'cause every little thing going to be all right.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Lisa Davenport, a clinical psychologist from Pembroke Pines, Fla., was one of many of you who wrote to us about that song. She says her clients, from children to grandparents, all have fears about the coronavirus.
LISA DAVENPORT: When they come to me with their concerns - and they can be profound, like, you know, I'm afraid I'm going to lose the job. The kids are at home. The couple that originally had a great relationship are now at odds. And what do I do? And for a moment, I am sitting there thinking, how do I sort of pull all this together for them and find some kind of light? And I continue to reflect on it's definitely, you know, their perspective. The way that you see things transforms everything. And then a sense of gratitude in that perspective. And I try to use that as a core part of the conversation, which I do anyway. It's just that now it really has to come through, and it really has to stick.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Dealing with the impact of the pandemic isn't just a professional challenge for Lisa Davenport, either.
DAVENPORT: It's been very difficult because, you know, both of my kids have - they're either furloughed, or they are permanently laid off. But probably the most profound and scariest portion, of course, is that my partner's mother was diagnosed as positive with COVID-19. She has been in the intensive care unit for two weeks, and it definitely made it harder for me as a psychologist because I had to now speak what I almost was losing faith in in terms of believing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THREE LITTLE BIRDS")
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS: (Singing) Rise up this mornin', smiled with the risin' sun...
DAVENPORT: "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley and the Wailers has been with me since I was a young child. And it's always been a song that I've gone to to sort of quiet my mind, quiet my spirit, give me a sense of relief, a sense of hope in - at times when maybe that hope - it escapes us.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THREE LITTLE BIRDS")
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS: (Singing) Singin' don't worry 'bout a thing 'cause every little thing gonna be all right. Don't worry...
DAVENPORT: It might sound a little too simple and even a little bit too cold or even insensitive to say that there is hope, there is a clearing that we are going to be OK, we're going to be all right. But I think that if we don't believe that, then the alternative is to feel despair and to feel hopelessness. And that's not who we are as a human race, as a planet, as our history. Our history tells us that we're going to be all right, just like that song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THREE LITTLE BIRDS")
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS: (Singing) Sayin' this is my message to you...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That was Lisa Davenport of Pembroke Pines, Fla., sharing Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds." And an update on her partner's mother - her condition has stabilized, and doctors think she'll be transferred out of the ICU sometime this weekend.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THREE LITTLE THINGS")
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS: (Singing) Singin' don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.