Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash
The last couple of months, since I returned to work after Christmas, have been strange. At work, I manage PR across the globe and the virus that we now know as Covid-19 began to impact what I did each day very early. Editors in China went away for Chinese New Year and didn’t come back - they are now, I am exceptionally pleased to say. We cancelled lunches with the media; exhibitions we were due to attend were postponed; trips to China, India and Singapore, Germany, and the US were postponed, then cancelled. I just haven’t felt like writing.
But now… well the whole point of this site was to share hints, tips and experiences that might make life easier. We are all at the beginning of what will be the strangest few (I hope) months of our lifetimes. Already we’ve had frayed edges in our house. Nothing different from the usual 10-year-old moments and sibling squabbles; but knowing what we are all embarking on somehow makes them all the more vivid. If we’re like this now – how are we going to be in a month? 2 months? 6 months? God help us.
So, I will do what I promised myself. Alongside juggling my job, which has now come home with me, and the coordination of two children’s education, I will find time for myself. I’d like to share that time with you, in the hope that my journey might help yours. Let’s all pull together.
As I get started, I want to share my personal plea. Over the last few days, I have begun to venture carefully onto Facebook in a personal capacity. I have shied away from it for a couple of years as I found it did me no good. For all the advantages that social media provided, keeping in touch with friends and family, I also found myself in groups that I wouldn’t have ventured into but for one thing in common. I found this exposed me to the opinions of people whose opinion I would never normally seek, or want. I also found that on occasion these opinions lacked the filter of face to face contact. People talked to the masses without having to face those they were talking to and without knowing them, but full of judgement. In the last few days, I have had my heart warmed by some amazing stories, but saddened by the very thing that led me to take a sabbatical from Facebook in the first place.
They say that you don’t know a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes. As we venture forth into the unknown I am committed to thinking the best of all those around me. I haven’t walked a mile in anyone else’s shoes and I don’t even profess to know all the personal challenges of those closest to me. Let’s pull together. Let’s not assume the faceless masses who have booked online deliveries, or shopped for their families and collectively left the shelves empty, are evil. Let’s not assume that those offering to deliver groceries to the elderly are seeking a way to con them. Let’s be grateful to all those out there keeping our supermarkets open, delivering groceries, and all the other essential services that we need to continue with our lives, rather than showing frustration that we can’t always get what we need. They are working with what they have and doing what they can.
I feel heartened by the fact that in China, just two months after the first human transmitted case was officially declared and lockdowns began, restaurants and bars are beginning to reopen. They are not at the end of this, but there is hope for life to return closer to what is normal. You can read more about this on the Guardian website. For me, the world feels surreal at the moment. I am fortunate to say that I have not yet been impacted directly by the virus, so I turn to those who know better to guide me on what is happening. A profound thank you to our NHS, amongst whom I count many friends and family. I for one am heeding their plea to stay home.
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