BRIGHTNESS

We could all do with a lift in mood, a bit of brightness in the last throes of winter lived through the headwind of lockdown.

So plans for a National Thank You Day on the first anniversary of Covid-19’s arrival in Ireland on February 28 is as good an idea as any.

We are all struggling - whether we realise it or not - those dark moods coupled with the frustrations and disagreements of the gathered turbulence of everyday moroseness.

The days are short with the evenings dark and covered in perpetual rain, so anything that might perk up our spirits would be welcome.

Lockdown Three has surrounded us like a barbed wire jacket, strangling all our opportunities for socialising and causing us to doubt the expectation for better times.

A National Thank You Day can seem like the whimsy of that type of validation that exists in the fakery of social media, but it could just be the cure for this malaise.

The reality is that the people who work in our communities, who have kept us going, who perform the small, unnoticed tasks and big efforts without seeking a thank you, are our real heroes.

From teachers, to the refuse collectors, from council workers to the hard working delivery drivers and postal workers, not forgetting of course our emergency services - they have all helped us through this last year.

It’s a hardship for certain, and there have been those who are worse off, but we all need a second to look to the horizon and think that there are better days to come.

Let’s get behind the National Thank You Day and embrace it - let’s reinstall that community spirit from Lockdown One and show our appreciation for those who perform the small tasks well.