Sharing a post-pandemic perspective
There’s plenty to look forward to with the recent easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Post-pandemic, we’ll be like children jumping in a puddle after a warm summer rain. It’s been a long haul with many losses. Could you ever have dreamed this virus would change our world and how we relate to it? We’re exhausted from the worries and cares of the COVID-19 times.
But how will we get back to the lives we once had? Maybe we won’t. Maybe we will. I know when I finally get to see my children, I’m going to hug them and hold them and kiss them like I’ll never let go. Absence has a way of doing that. It also makes us appreciate so much more the things and people we once took for granted.
I’ve heard people bemoan the fact that they gained weight during the various lockdowns and their accompanying stresses. I’m one of them. But then I stop and think about what we’re living through: a pandemic.
What we’re living through is the stuff of stories to pass on to our children and grandchildren for the next 100 years.
In the coming months, we’ll emerge from COVID-19 life and have a time of recovery from restrictions, masks, isolation, quarantine and the pandemic vocabulary. This will be a unique opportunity in our lifetime to assess priorities.
Maybe we’ll decide to not be so busy all the time, but we’ll continue to take time to appreciate the most important things in life, like family, nature and health. It might be time to re-evaluate our values and rebuild them in a postpandemic world.
I’ve been thinking over the past few months that I didn’t really mind the COVID-19 restrictions. I enjoyed staying home and not having the commitments and social engagements that were the stuff of my life before. It’s been a time of appreciating the people who are around me, getting more into nature, reading more and pursuing my hobbies.
It’s been gratifying to look at the calendar and see a week with nothing on the agenda. I would like to continue in that direction and selectively choose the activities and people who enhance my life, rather than doing things out of a sense of obligation.
And I will never take my basic freedoms for granted again. Freedoms like being able to worship in community, have a party and travel wherever, whenever with whom I want.
What are your post-pandemic plans? Think about it. Will you just pick up where you left off in early 2020 or will you be making a few changes for the better?
A native of Newfoundland, Christine Faour lives in Coldbrook, N.S., with Dave and their cat, Bashu. After a lifetime spent teaching and raising a family, she has retired. She has a book, Eat Where You Are: A Memoir in Recipes, and a blog at www.anourishedlife.ca.