Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

Good morning. As we gradually emerge from lockdown, we have little idea of what the ‘new normal’ might be. But whatever the future brings, the last three months have brought us face to face with ourselves in sometimes challenging ways. For people like me who have so far not fallen ill with Covid19 and who have spent lockdown in relative tranquillity, there have been many opportunities for reflection and discovery. I live near Ham Common in London. My husband and I have been going for walks through meadows bejewelled with wildflowers and along meandering paths through wooded groves, surrounded by glorious birdsong. We’ve discovered a world of wonders on our doorstep. We’ve also come across litter everywhere we go. It seems there’s no end to our human capacity to destroy our environment. We’ve started taking bin bags with us to gather as much as we can. These experiences of exploring new paths and getting to know our surroundings could be a metaphor for what this time has been like psychologically. People sometimes speak of the ‘landscapes of the soul’. The experience of lockdown has brought many of us face to face with aspects of ourselves we never knew were there. We’ve discovered hidden pathways through our emotions and desires which are usually overgrown by the tangled demands of everyday life – and sometimes we may have come upon piles of rubbish too! Our ability to cope has been tested, and our strengths and weaknesses have been revealed as individuals and as a society. It’s been a time when I for one have discovered how little I need to be happy, and how much of the stress and freneticism of my life is unnecessary. Often on our walks among the wildflowers I’ve found myself thinking of Jesus’s invitation to consider the lilies of the field. They neither toil nor spin, but not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. Jesus is cautioning his followers against spending their lives worrying about tomorrow, because today has quite enough troubles of its own. Covid19 has taught us that the future eludes even our most meticulous planning and forecasts. Whatever our anxieties and intentions were at the beginning of 2020, few of us could have predicted the enormity of the pandemic and its impact upon the life of every person on the planet. Yet it has also invited us to discover a different perspective on life and to reconsider what really matters. I hope we can retain some of the lessons of the last few months and, to borrow a phrase from the Catholic agency Cafod, we might learn to live more simply, so that others might simply live.