Year 2020

Life is never fair

It is complex. There are many times in our life when “a decade of awfulness” can descend upon us in a week, and yet you can also go a decade with only little obstacles stopping you from moving forward and enjoying your life.

Often, I wonder how I ever survived some of the many challenges I have encountered in my life.

Emigration, floods, earthquakes, recessions, political unrest, hijacking, starting again in 3 different countries, teenagers, surviving loss and widowhood.

Yet here we are today and there is a nasty virus that has brought the world to its knees – or just about, and yet the sun still shines, children are still being born, and people are still finding the “good” in life.

The Covid-19 Pandemic is very real and is destroying lives and livelihoods around the world as I write this and I reflect upon this.

How can I still be happy, worried like others perhaps, but happy to hear and see good things, and feel lucky to be alive.

Tomorrow is not promised to everybody

Many lives have been sacrificed through wars, floods and earthquakes, famine and political and social unrest, terminal illness and more.

So many have died far too young, some are dying as I write this because of illness and no access to medical treatment.

Our attitudes are the one thing that we can all control

I remember one morning coming back from the hospital with my late husband.

By then, he not only had bowel cancer, but the cancer had spread to his liver, stomach and was in his bones.

I had stopped at an intersection. I was feeling fearful and exhausted. Watching a loved one suffer is no picnic.

A man on a skateboard crossed the road in front of me.

There was something different about this man

He had no legs or arms. He was merely a torso with a happy face yet he was moving so expertly before me on a skateboard.

I could not believe my eyes.

He was amazing as he maneuvered his skateboard through the busy intersection.

Surely it is better to enjoy whatever time there is left on earth in a kind, positive and happy way and not waste each precious moment worrying over things that we have no control over?

That man with his smiling face taught me a lot that day.

Attitude is everything.

He looked so joyful as he whizzed past the waiting cars.

He was happy on his skateboard. He did not need arms or legs to achieve what is difficult even for able people.

If we counted each and every single blessing we had, we would find out how incredibly lucky we are – more than most of the inhabitants of this big world that we live in.

Think for a moment of those people who live in small cramped hovels with no sanitation in many of the poorest regions of the world. How are they coping in Covid times?

Or those that are ill or waiting for chemotherapy or surgery, or those who are at home while their family members keep our essential services running.

They are being brave and hopefully remaining calm while their loved ones work in the risky environment of this Pandemic.

How difficult it must be for them all. How difficult it must be for those who are losing loved ones due to this virus.

Not being able to hold them as they depart this world.

So back to the present

Covid- 19. Some are still in Lock down, some are just coming out of it at various levels.

Sadly, some are rioting and creating civil unrest and more hurt for others by not obeying the distancing rules. Selfish acts of ignorance will harm more people in the end.

Lock down? It is VERY necessary – yes, to flatten the curve, but to try and eliminate a virus that could go on for years until a vaccine is found.

There are many things we can do to keep learning and finding ways to keep involved and busy with LIFE as it is really important.

Keeping in touch with family, friends and work colleagues during this time is also very important.

Remember it is hardest for the extroverts, so introverts. Call them as they will find this isolation more difficult than you will.

I have sold real estate during recessions twice, through massive political change, and have had to start over in 3 different countries.

I have had to find ways to adapt in so many different ways, in order to embrace different cultures and find new ways of doing things.

Sometimes, those very changes have made me feel that I have lost my own sense of belonging and self.

So I acknowledge that things will be different for some time on the other side of this lock down, but I truly believe there will be plentiful opportunities available for people with the right attitude.

“ Courage is the little voice at the end of the day that whispers “ I will try again tomorrow”