MY WEEK BY FRANCIS GAY

Relaxing in the garden, With your favourite brew, A good book or magazine, Is enjoyable to do. The lazy drone of bumble bees, Birds in harmony, Gardens are a haven, Of peace and tranquillity.

Annie used to run evening art classes at the community centre.

When it became clear that meeting up in groups wasn’t going to happen again for a while, she moved the class online. That brought its own problem. It didn’t work for some, but many others loved it. And Annie had to teach a little differently online.

“One thing I noticed,” she told me, “was that the beginning usually set the tone for the whole class. If I began by asking people how they were, I might get a list of complaints about Covid, about being bored, about not having done anything.

“But, if I asked them what was the best thing that had happened that day, what they hoped to achieve this session…the classes were generally so much better.”

As it is with Annie’s class, so it can be with our days. If we only ask the right questions!

Yvonne and George grew up in Glasgow’s tenements.

Then buildings were cleared, motorways were built, people moved on and out of the city. Approaching retirement, they still kept in touch with many of the pals from the playground – but it wasn’t the same. And, oh, how they missed the tenements!

Then the virus came and no one really knew how to deal with it. But what had once been casual, occasional, exchanges of greetings now came with offers of help. Word was spread about those with health issues, or those with financial problems, and the old gang began to come together. Company was provided, resources shared and, despite the difficulties, Yvonne confessed, “I began to feel like a carefree wean again.”

You see, it wasn’t the tenements that created the tenement spirit. It was the hard times. And here they are again. To bring out the best in us!

She works in a specialised health centre.

It’s rewarding work but spending day after day in personal protective equipment, running at half capacity because of the current regulations was taking its toll. She might not have been as “sun-shiney” this day as she usually was.

The last thing she had to do before heading home was check the charity box. The centre collects for Mary’s Meals, an organisation that feeds hungry children around the world.

Without fuss of fanfare, one of her patients had donated a large amount of money. Mary’s Meals say, “We have confidence in the innate goodness of people”.

So does my friend. “Many a time,” she told me, “It’s been what gets me through the day.”

The good might not make the headlines as much as the other stuff, but it’s always there. Ask Mary’s Meals, ask me or my friend, ask the children who get fed – people are good!

I have friends – habitual huggers – for whom social distancing has been a real problem.

I have other friends who normally describe themselves as real introverts, who should be finding this time of isolation a delight.

But, strangely, they aren’t. Both groups are very much looking forward to things getting back to the way they were.

Then there is my friend who lost her sight later in life and my friend with mental health issues… and others. For them, isolation was imposed by other circumstances and people’s uncertainties around them.

On their behalf, could I ask that we forgo the way things used to be and make the things that will be, better? Once we are allowed to be there for each other again, might we also be there for the people whose isolation is much longer-term and has nothing to do with any virus?

Let’s make a new, kinder, normal.