This week we’ve been blessed with gorgeous sunny skies, as Spring begins to blossom and things start to grow, transforming the immediate landscape around our home. It’s harder to feel gloomy when it’s like this.
So far, working from home and home schooling has gone okay. The kids have gotten on great with using Google Classroom to receive and complete their daily assignments, with minimal supervision needed so far.
I’ve been able to transition into remote working, our company is making adjustments, everyone is trying hard to just keep going.
It is hard to fully concentrate though.
I feel very lucky that we live in our own house, with a garden, in a neighbourhood with nice neighbours who look out for each other. We’re not stuck abroad, or in a terrible situation beyond the Pandemic itself. I’m looking at my garden now, I cut the lawn yesterday, and it looks lovely. I think to myself that if I had to be stuck someplace for awhile, with my family, this is the place. We’re ok.
But at the same time my brain is slowly realising that this IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. Only last year I had the same feeling about climate change. But this is more immediate. We are living through a global pandemic, the likes of which nobody has seen in a century (or so sources say). It has brought the world to it’s knees.
The problem is the information too – how dangerous is this, can I get really sick, what changes do I need to make. The message keeps changing ever so slightly, and I wonder if it could have been made clearer earlier on. I think people didn’t take it seriously because that’s how the messaging was delivered.
As for the timescale and long term effects on society, nobody knows for sure. We were thinking maybe by the summer we might be over it. But it could take much longer, and might not go away for a year or more. A vaccine won’t be available for 12-18months, and we don’t yet have widely available treatments. Health services are struggling, and we’ve not reached the peak in the West.
Still, at least it’s sunny.