Light at the end of the tunnel?

 So finally we have the news we’ve all been waiting for, and maybe, just maybe there is an end in sight, a light at the end of the Covid and lockdown tunnel. And I’m happy with the news, as I’m sure many of us are. Even if it should have happened before, we need to start looking forward and the hope that is the future.

 

But along with that happiness comes the fear, the anxiousness.  And I’m sure I’m not alone in that either. We’ve been so used to staying in, to working from home and not seeing people that its become some kind of strange normal. And I am looking forward to seeing my friends and family again, don’t get me wrong, but I’m also nervous about how things will be going forwards with our society. Has this pandemic changed us? For the most part, I would hope yes. That we would be more aware of things, maybe adapt our routines and lives to this new awareness, rather than just slipping back into how our lives were before.  

 

But given that there has still been that minority of people acting carelessly  throughout and that are likely to part of the reason why we have stayed in lockdowns for as long as we have, it makes me feel uneasy. I, like most of us, have been sticking to the rules. But it still surprises me how unaware some people are of those around them, especially when out walking or doing the weekly shop. I know that the vaccines are working their way through the population each and every day, but I don’t feel that we should become complacent. Have we not learnt anything by how the last 12 months have been?

 

And that’s why I’m feeling anxious about the months ahead. Of course I want to get back to some kind of normality, see people and go places, which is what I’ve been missing. But on the other hand it has made me re-evaluate things, see my life differently and I don’t want to lose hold of that. The last year has been a rollercoaster for us all and I don’t think any of us want to go through it all again in a hurry.  But don’t we also have to learn to live a little differently to ensure that?

 

I think the easing slowly of restrictions is a sensible way to proceed and I just hope that it works. I won’t be rushing into anything as much as I’ve missed people. I don’t think my anxiety would cope for one. And the sensible side of me is saying, what difference will a few more weeks make. I want to feel ready to ease back into things, as much as my impatience will let me. I want to still have my friends, family around me for the unforeseeable future, and that to me is the most important thing of all. If this experience has showed us anything, its that life is too short and people can leave us when we least expect it. And also, although its been hard mentally, we can slowing come out the other side. The emphasis is on  the word slow. We’re not quite there yet, but we will be soon.