Even just sitting down with the intention of writing about the Covid-19 pandemic has brought on an internal weariness…but I can do this! 

The fear, the constantly changing guidelines, the adjustments to our current situations, along with the reality that life will never quite be the same again has knocked the joie de vivre from many people’s lives.  

In late March my husband, kids, and I had to make a last minute shift from a two-week holiday in the Californian desert to a week in beautiful Victoria, BC.  Heading over to the island, the ferry terminal and the ferry itself was full of happy, shiny people, but, coming home a week later, our BC Ferries vessel was a ghost ship.  

In that short week between going to and coming home from Victoria restaurants, bars, gyms, schools, and playgrounds across the province had shut down indefinitely.  It felt like someone had pushed the “pause” button on life.

That week I felt a strong desire to watch Downton Abbey in its entirety again.

Confession:  I need very little nudging to immerse myself in period pieces!

It’s a minor spoiler but, at the end of season one, World War One breaks out; then, season two takes us, and the wealthy Crawley family, through the experience of war on the home front, with subsequent seasons illustrating how drastically different the “new normal” was for the British aristocracy in the aftermath of WWI.

So I watched it in very short indulgent bursts while home-schooling kindergarten. I felt gratitude that the global shock of Covid-19 wouldn’t drag on for four years like WWI did!  

Only now I’m not so sure…  

Certainly 2021 will continue to be new territory as we come out of our first Covid autumn and winter (and we will) and return to the social distanced freedom of the great outdoors in spring and summer.  

Maybe there will be a vaccine, maybe there won’t.  

Maybe rock concerts and international travel will be a thing again, maybe they won’t.  

It’s important to acknowledge what we’ve lost, grieve it, and try to remain curious about what comes next.