Discombobulated

I can hardly believe it’s August already! This year hasn’t turned out at all how I thought it would (and I’m pretty sure not alone in feeling this way). We’ve all experienced changes and challenges in our lives before. Yet somehow this year feels different. I’ve never heard the word ‘unprecedented’ used so many times before. The Coronavirus pandemic has affected every one of us worldwide in so many different ways. And we all have our own personal experience of this pandemic. There are sadly many who are grieving the loss of their loved ones, key workers who have made (and are making) huge sacrifices to protect others, those who have lost their livelihoods and are struggling financially, children have missed months of school – to name only a few. Just thinking about it all sometimes feels overwhelming.

The sheer scale of the global, national and personal challenges and changes to our everyday lives is a lot for anyone to deal with, whatever your personal circumstances or experiences during this pandemic. So if you are feeling lost or even a little discombobulated, rest assured, you are not alone in feeling this way. These are after all, extraordinary – some might even say, unprecedented – times.

I know that personally, I have much to be grateful for throughout this pandemic so far. But every aspect of my life has been different – from working from home, to doing everything virtually, including choir and mindfulness yoga. I even took part in my first virtual retreat this summer and had my first Zoom appointment with my Parkinson’s nurse (having not seen her for months while she was redeployed). I was surprised by how quickly things which seemed totally abnormal at first became part of my new routine during lockdown. Now that lockdown is easing, things that I used to take for granted seem a big deal. From cautiously using public transport for the first time in months (wearing my face covering of course) to having my first coffee out with a friend. Even these things feel strange. Which seems bizarre since I’ve been doing them regularly for years, and only stopped for five months.

When lockdown began, it all happened so quickly, I knew it was necessary and I just accepted it. But I had naively thought ‘when this is all over, things will get back to normal’ – I now realise it’s far from that simple. This global crisis has changed all of our lives and we can’t go back to how things used to be. That doesn’t mean that we should lose hope. I believe we can learn a lot from our experiences – on a global, national, local and personal level – and use these lessons to help us as we look towards the future.

Thank you to my lovely friend Karen for this beautiful butterfly photo.

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