Lockdown, Day 65

So here we are, week 10 of lockdown in the UK. To be honest I didn’t think back in March that we  would get to the end of May and still be saying it’s too early to go ‘back to normal’, whatever normal is. Personally I don’t think the cultural lifestyle our society had convinced us was ‘normal’ actually worked. Toiling until we dropped, hardly any time for families, the materialistic obsession with always having to have more, putting families into huge amounts of debt, bills going up and up but wages staying at a level that was for so many, barely enough to survive on, In work poverty becoming as widespread as the pandemic we’re fighting, not to mention the pressure school children and teens are put on by their peers to have a certain brand of whatever or face ridicule and bullying. How is that a normal anyone would want to return to?

In our house, life has been significantly more relaxed than usual. I’ve noticed the washing doesn’t need doing as much, our writing and creativity has become prolific, bedtime stories and cuddles can be a bit longer and getting up at the crack of dawn are a thing of the past except for the dogs’ morning ritual. Sure the waistline’s are expanding a bit but the house is a much happier place, not to mention our pets are delighted to get so much attention and the garden is looking better than it has in years. The children still have school work to do and so there has been the frustrated debates over how they manage their time but they aren’t so anxious. They aren’t worrying about all the things that normally play on their minds and consequently not getting stressed.

I understand it is quite normal during these times to experience fluctuations in emotions as I mentioned before. Lethargy is something I’m not overly familiar with however. Tiredness and exhaustion I am well acquainted with and as someone who is always on the go or doing something, unable to just sit and watch tv, I have, on numerous occasions of late, found myself lethargic for no apparent reason. Could it be that I am experiencing a physical outworking of subconscious concerns?

Schools and shops may be getting ready to reopen but with over a thousand people a day still testing positive for Covid 19, not to mention those who haven’t been tested, I fail to see how it is safe to do so. The recent VE Day celebrations, as morale boosting as they were, encouraged people to abandon self isolation as restrictions were lifted for a few hours. The hot weather, bank holiday weekend and half term holiday has beaches crammed with sun seekers and sneaky holiday makers out for the day. What I cautiously ask now is, for a bit of sunshine, enjoyment and so called ‘normality’, how heavy will the price be that inevitably must be paid.