The full moon slowly appears, following her own magnificent glow. The mountain is edged blue in the brilliant reflection. A soft rain drizzles on the leaves, forming plump drops that fall audibly on my glasses as I try to appreciate the magnificence. A gentle, icy wind cries around the corners of the house. Just like that it is winter again, the strangest of winters this 2020 winter. A coldness has crept into the corners of our society. Harsh and biting.
COVID-19. We have had enough. We need to feel hugged again, connect, and be together. This strange, enforced detachment might suit some people. For many it is winter. Dark, biting, harsh. Now more than ever I am aware of the importance of relationships, of our connectedness, of how we become through others. Ubuntu. And how much of that we have lost even before COVID. How selfish, exclusive and detached we have become. And how we now realise the impact of our actions.
I think that for many older people, the regrets of a life not fully lived must feel a bit like the COVID lockdown when you suddenly wake up one day and realise that there are so many things you should have done, that you no longer can. If I think about how I miss a long table with friends and fabulous food, and laughter. How I miss travelling, just getting in the car and going away for a weekend to visit my Mother. Of those incredible hugs as my friends come through the gate, the warmth of visitors.
The scars of this lockdown will hopefully teach us the importance of connectedness and how fleeting time really is. Nothing will last forever. Everything we do is an investment towards our own quality of life. We must prepare the soil, sow the seeds, make the memories, and cultivate the garden so that one day when independence and memories fade, we have connections that are secure and solid. The deeper the memories, the more difficult it is for them to fade. We must dig deep, and secure the things that we want to keep, the things we will need to treasure when we can no longer jump in the car and visit friends or travel to exotic destinations.
But more than anything else I see personalities come to the surface during COVID that scare the living daylights out of me. People who have become miserable beyond measure, acidic, cynical and downright horrid. Nothing escapes their ire. I cannot help but think what they would be like one day when they are old and life is a bit like COVID-19. Go and look in the mirror, ask yourself what kind of person you have become in the last few months, and let it be an indication of the type of old person that you might be one day…