🍂😷💉 FLATTENED OUR CURVES
It’s the first anniversary of lockdown……… this time last year, who would have believed what we would live through.
The most tragic of times for those that have lost loved ones, those with ‘Long Covid’ and those suffering from other illnesses unable to get timely treatment. We’re witnessing an international disaster……. on an unimaginable scale where no country nor person has escaped the effects.
We’ve not seen our families, our friends nor our work colleagues…….. we’ve gained and lost weight……. we determined to sort out our wardrobes, declutter our homes or learn a new skill. Well those were my plans anyway, but you know what they say about the ‘best laid plans’.
We’ve clapped on our doorsteps, banged our saucepans, felt gratitude like never before to our doctors, nurses and everyone else who works in the NHS, doing their best to care for us in the darkest of times. Then felt despondent and depressed with the 1% pay rise offered to our angels.
We’ve missed out on celebrating weddings and religious festivals with our family and friends, unable to attend funerals of loved ones and its slowly sucked the life out of us. One lockdown we survived, two was just about tolerable but this last once since December, has flattened all of our curves.
We spent 4 years prior to the pandemic arguing, debating and dealing with Brexit, falling out with family and friends who just didn’t see ‘our point of view’. Now, we’re divorced and witnessing serious fallout with the EU and we stand alone for better or for worse.
We thought the vaccine would be a panacea, now we know that nature is more powerful than we ever contemplated……… the mutant variations are an ever-growing threat but I believe our scientists’ will prevail. Maybe an optimistic view but hope is a positive emotion which nothing can destroy.
We’ve watched politicians and ‘celebs’ break the rules and not get punished and two ladies out walking drinking coffee 2m apart who found themselves fined. The world and our feelings are not black and white, it and they are grey and, sadly, for the past year, dreary and dull.
I’ve learned this:
When push comes to shove, nothing and no-one replaces your family or friends.
My puppy Pixie has brought me unbridled joy and unconditional love like no other. Would he remember me if someone took him away, I would hope so. But, if not, I’ve lived in the moment and those memories are mine forever.
That people from my past and present have offered to help me with food and medicine at a time when I couldn’t leave the house even though they had their own to worry about.
That I actually don’t need to visit a supermarket ever again but I definitely need to visit the hairdresser!
That I feel humble, a speck of light in a world that is often dark and foreboding and I want to shine bright.
That something deep inside of us dies with lack of social contact; laughing with family/friends, going to the theatre, meeting friends visiting parks, museums and travelling. Of being human.
I don’t have the answers, just thoughts one year on………… and I’d love to hear yours……
Move on from things that don’t make you happy, make someone else happy instead. Walk away from those that don’t appreciate the wonder of you. Stand tall in the face of adversity and, most of all, believe in you. You have more power than you realise.
In conclusion, my friends ~ I do believe that happiness is ‘All For One and One For All’.
Laurel Alper is the Founder of Laurel Leaf Networking.