Eleanor Lawrie, Author

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.