Eleanor Lawrie, Author

A lovely pink Gerbera and five proud Verona Tulips. It’s a beautiful  bouquet for the table. Flowers for my birthday; they were received with great joy and gratitude, but presented with even more. The giver’s eyes sparkled with such affection for this birthday girl; hearts feeling a deep satisfaction for, oh, so many reasons.

Having just moved to my daughter’s and son-in-law’s home, not only to be in a safe haven during Covid-19, protected and able to stay home, not having to venture out to shop for anything, but to stay here and be a permanent member of the household. This is a life change of real significance, and all of that came together with those simple blooms.

I’m so in love with this little bunch of flowers. How can I make them last forever?  I have my photos, and now I’m sharing them with you, my dear readers.

That tiny bouquet signals the end of too many unhappy years and the beginning of new hope. Even at this exalted age of 77, I have new hope. Even with Covid-19 hovering in our midst, I can still have new hope.

I hear laughter every day in this home. I even feel like contributing to that laughter and joining in. It’s a necessary part of life, an essential part of a happy life, and natural to a life filled with love.

Not only was there a special meal for my birthday; there was a wonderful layer cake, made that morning, and iced while we watched, letting dinner settle a bit. And we all celebrated that cake as a big occasion for my daughter, even though she is an amazing cook and baker. First time to make that kind of cake!! Now, that was also an event. A joyous event!

I want to show you the bouquet as it looked on its first day here. It’s so fresh and lovely, it’s balanced, it’s beautiful in every way.

But only one Gerbera and five tulips stayed strong long enough to grace our table over a week later.

This is my wish for each and every one of you. Be the one Gerbera and five tulips. Stay strong in this highly difficult and stressful time for our families and friends and our world. Don’t think too much about the questions, just hang in there. Be a proud pink Gerbera. Be a strong and stubborn creamy-white Verona Tulip.

It’s a rainy Monday. Easter Monday. A holiday for some. A workday for others.

But today, this Monday in April 2020, most people the world over are at home, and not with family or friends, because of an invasion into our lives by an ugly little squiggle of misery being called Covid-19.

Perhaps it’s worth suggesting a calm reflection: Spring will happen, buds will open, grass will grow, birds will nest and summer will come, the world will go on. And this virus will cycle through to an end, a control, a solution, or just lose its initial power.

Every day is a day closer to returning to a life without the fright and the restrictions. Every hour is an hour that we can reach out to loved ones to say a reassuring word, ask how a friend is faring, inquire if there is a way you can help a neighbour, write a letter to an elderly relative you’ve never met.

We deeply grieve the deaths, of course, and we all somehow fear that we or someone we love will be swept up and taken away by this invading entity.

But we still have today, we have this hour to live through.  Use it! Use it to do something small and insignificant. Use it to relax your mind, to reassure your soul, to ease your anxiety. Do something you haven’t done in years, tell yourself you are lucky to do the mundane chores you have to do every day, because you still can do them.

And just maybe, when the dust finally settles, the world will have learned a lesson or two about empathy, coming together, and we might just find a different level of harmony in our existence. We are all the same; just humans put here for a myriad of reasons that most of never will begin to understand.

I hope we will have learned to slow down, to savour each moment; to continue living but with more insight into the importance of loving, of being, of sharing, of kindness, and just maybe we can do less judging, act with less greed, be more honest with each other in every facet of our minutes and hours, days, weeks, and years.

Above all, keep laughter in your heart, let it out to colour the atmosphere in your home, in your room, in your apartment. Let it ring, loud and clear. And if there are tears, don’t be ashamed, let them fall, but then dry your eyes, put your shoulders back, lift your head high and live your life.

I am no scholar, and I don’t pretend to have any solid answers. Why write this down? Just in case it’s worth something to one person, just in case it gives one person a little something to make these days a tiny bit more tolerable. I humbly give each of you, my fellow human beings, my whole heart with all my love and sympathy and support.