Wednesday 18 March:

Progress Report: This morning the BBC website indicated that, in the UK, there had been 1,950 confirmed cases of coronavirus; 407 new cases; and 60 deaths. For the first time in ages, I missed this morning’s “Bloke’s Prayer” café session with great mates (every Wednesday 7.30-8.30am) after deciding that my imminent ‘isolation’ made it inappropriate. Moira and I walked to the Riverside Garden Centre mid-morning to collect some flower and vegetable seeds… we don’t have huge expectations, but just thought it would be nice to be able watch stuff grow in our tiny garden. Earlier (just after 8am), I’d made my final trip to the shops (Aldi); lots of people – all very well behaved (and Aldi had put notices restricting customers to a maximum of 4 items per product). I later noticed online that Asda Bedminster had apparently closed during the course of the morning – due to staff shortages and, according to one customer posting on facebook, greedy, hoarding customers.

I made batches of macaroni cheese for passing on to Iris+Rosa (and Ruth+Stu!). Ruth decided that this would be her last day in the studio. That’s ‘it’ for us too: self-isolation/self-distancing starts now (but we’ll still try to get out for our daily walks).

I’ve had various conversations (eg. with Ruth and Hannah) about the awful, almost apocalyptic, sense of unreality the virus seems to have brought to people’s lives – a sense of “well, we might as well just give up now”… and yet, amid all the doom and gloom, some of us had been wondering if it might ultimately result in people thinking about the world in a different way. I came across this from an American blogger, Kitty O’Meara, who described similar feelings in this beautiful poem (although the words fail to highlight the pain, suffering and struggles so many individuals are experiencing at the present time, I think they offer a glimpse of hope in these dark times. Let’s hope so):

IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC

And the people stayed home. And they read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And they listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live, and they healed the earth fully, as they had been healed.

Kitty O’Meara