LESSONS LEARNT
AFTER A YEAR OF LOCKDOWN
I REMEMBER walking down the street and feeling a sense of loneliness, feeling like I was the only person left on planet earth.
The virus, a cruel thing she is. She kills innocent people and she takes away special, important moments in people’s lives. She plays mind games with people, making them believe that they are infected with a deadly virus when all they are really infected with is fear. Her favourite targets are the weak and the vulnerable – the people who cannot fight her.
I was going to the little shop close to my house. I had not been out of the house for seven days.
Everything was silent. Roads that are normally filled with cars and bicycles and people were completely empty. Coffee shops, usually booming with noise from runners getting their morning coffee or cyclists stopping for some food, were closed. Not a single light was on inside.
I am terrified of her because not only has she reminded me that life is short and I need to appreciate the people around me, she has also brought out things in me that I have tried so hard to push down. Anxiety, that I had managed to ignore, hit me like a ton of bricks. Jobs were lost, poverty grew, violence became an even larger threat, political issues rose from dark, hidden caves and, all of a sudden, I felt like a prisoner – trapped and alone.
She has taken away so much from me, but she has also taught me things that I would have never learned before. It is hard to appreciate the little things when you have never experienced life without them. A hug from a friend when you are down. A smile from a stranger walking past you. A visit from someone who cares about how you are doing.
She does not like human beings and I do not blame her. Her mission has been to save the earth and harm the beings that are destroying the beautiful earth. She has helped animals take back their habitats and she has allowed forests to flourish, she has helped the earth in ways that humans never could.
She has brought stories that will be told over generations and generations. She has forced mankind to take a good hard look at the damage we have caused and, in some ways, I am grateful to her, but I am also ready for her to pack her bags and leave.