March 2020, the coronavirus, now known as Covid19 has broken out of China and has spread across the world. On 23rd March, the Prime Minister issued the lockdown order across the whole of the UK. Now life is going to change dramatically.
Personally I'm really enjoying the time off to indulge my hobbies, clean my house, play with our dogs and rest. But that isn't how it is for everyone and we are well aware that just a short distance away is the hospital where so many people are dying, and even more are sick. Every day the death toll rises, the despair and speculation is apparent at any given facebook or Twitter check.
It's a strange thing being in lockdown. The relief of slowing down is very welcome, many of us swapping high pressure or stressful jobs for gardening, reading books, hobbies etc and spending time with the family. As a nation here in England, we're learning to live with less, accepting a more simple way of life as a possibility and a positive step, even though it is the result of enforced isolation. I read on social media of so many enjoying being able to hear the birds, stopping to notice nature emerging on their doorsteps, being able to breathe easier as the air pollution levels drop. Yes it has come at a very high price, but this is an opportunity for everyone, the world over, to re-evaluate what is important in life, change the way we live and make a concerted and concentrated effort continue to the healing the Earth did for itself in our absence because we haven't when we should have been.
The negative feelings and emotions that emerge unexpectedly and perhaps without apparent reason will vary from person to person, some will feel terror, some filled with tears, some, like me, an uneasiness and irritability that comes out of nowhere. I'm a reasonably level headed woman, and yet I admit that a couple of times over the past week or so I've felt scared and cried, fearing for my life, even though I know that logically by self isolating I am the safest I can be in the current situation. The occasion of feeling significantly more than apprehensive came after I went to the supermarket for groceries. Usually I would go early to one of the budget supermarkets that I am very familiar with. I know where everything is in each aisle. I write my list aisle by aisle so I can be in and out quickly, therefore lessening any possibility of infection. I have a thick mask I made from t-shirt material, gloves and take disinfectant for the trolley etc, so I'm as protected as is likely I can be. On this occasion though I was asked to go to a different shop, at a different time of the day. Suddenly, although I'm in a place that I have been into a number of times previously, I couldn't remember where anything was, the aisles had been one way and my shopping list didn't work in line with it. Shelves were bare of items as I went through the list, I had to keep retracing my steps, but I couldn't easily because of barriers. This was real. The restrictions put in place made sense, just as those now in place by our Government to stop us going out and spreading the virus logically makes sense to keep us safe, and yet, for the first time since all this began I felt scared rather than worried or concerned. Our world is under attack and life has changed forever. When all this is over, will society keep the changes that are becoming the norm now, or go back to what was 'normal' before Covid19 turned our lives upside down. I hope we don't go back to how life used to be, it was too stressful, driven by money not relationships. Our natural world is starting to heal itself and recover from the abuse we as the human race have forced on it for so many decades.
No comments:
Post a Comment