Lockdown losses...and gains

Water Lilies Embroidery
Lockdown project 2020

 A year has passed. Britain has spent eight of the last twelve months living in lockdown. For most of the year, news reports have been shaped by a litany of limitation, loneliness, and loss. A year of living with uncertainty and restrictions on daily life has brought exhaustion. Frustrations have at times boiled over and tempers have frayed. Even now, with the end on the horizon, there is a sense that we have all been living lives of quiet desperation.

There is another story to be told though. A story of courage, community, and creativity. Faced with the need to stay home, we have found positive ways to pass the time. Elderly people and young cancer patients have found ways to raise funds for the NHS. Workers on furlough have volunteered to deliver food parcels, cook meals, collect prescriptions, and check in on those unable to leave their homes. Creative endeavours of all kinds have flourished. Home improvement projects and hobbies offered a focus in uncertain times. 

Few will mourn the ending of 'lockdown life'. Limitation, loneliness, and loss have shaped our lives for too long. We have missed spending time with those outside our own households. Each of us looks forward to getting back to doing the things we most enjoy. As Christians we have felt real loss at the inability to gather as a community of faith. 

As we celebrate our new found freedom in the coming months it would be easy to forget the positive aspects of what may be the most unusual year of our lives. A year in which courage, community, and creativity flourished in the face of adversity. A year that might change us forever.