As I sit here in my little office which will be my creative space for the next wee while, and think about what we’ve just been through over the past four months – it actually baffles me and also sometimes feels like it was just a weird dream.
Is anyone else feeling that? Like on the one hand, we are only in July of 2020 and those four months feel like they were an entire year in themselves?! And then on the other hand that four and a half week lockdown seems like a distant memory.
And then there are days and moments where everything feels completely normal, and then reality slaps you in the face and you remember the country pretty much entirely shut down, and we had to stay at home in a bid to save lives as the world struggled to control a Global Pandemic – and scarily the pandemic is still raging on in the world around us. And then you feel proud and grateful that we did as we were told, and we now have our freedoms back – but then you remember the borders are shut!
We are at “Alert Level One” which essentially means do what we want so long as we wash our hands and don’t leave the country! So so weird. And now we have new cases trickling in from overseas which I think has us all slightly on edge again, hoping we don’t have to go back up a level (please no no no). I’ve had muddled feelings about lockdown/Covid-19/the world like I’m sure everyone else has. Lockdown taught me some valuable lessons about what’s important. I really came to enjoy the quiet life, and am actively trying to keep a bit of that going – it is funny how old habits try wriggle back in right?!
What it did teach me was that spending time with the people in my life is so damn precious.
We also need to be kinder to the planet. And each other. Can we do it? Gosh I really don’t know. But in my glass-half-full brain I hope each person has learnt at least one thing so that maybe we can make some change for the good. Phew, that’s enough all-over-the-place feelings for now!
By Brodie Kane