Lockdown Sunday

Spring is not far away and the days are getting longer as February moves into March in a weeks' time.  It is also the start of the season of Lent which lasts 40 days. For those of us still able to attend church and worship in a socially distanced group (congregation), there has been some solace and calm during this pandemic. Today, Sunday 21st February marks the beginning of week seven of Lockdown No 3 ( since January 6th 2021) and we have been living almost a year wearing face masks,  social distancing, hand washing and staying at home to work, study and isolate from friends, family, colleagues and school friends.  This has been necessary to limit and avoid transmission of the Covid-19 virus. Many of us are feeling the strain of this government imposed home curfew and restriction of freedom of movement and our civil liberties. The impact on our mental health has been enormous.  Those who have lost loved ones and those who have recovered from the virus and continue to experience long covid are the hardest hit.  Covid is a great leveller; there has no one that has not been affected by this global pandemic.  In time to come, those of us who have survived this pandemic will reflect on how we endured life under lockdown and come through it.  Many of us have learned new skills and habits; some good and some not so but overall we will have developed a sense of personal growth and contributed to our community in some small way.  Covid stories will be told and re-told in word, pictures, photos, music, poetry and the Arts. All this will be stored in  perpetuity. Lessons in life and history in the making.