The rhythms of life

We are learning fast to adapt and readapt to the rhythms of our lives. Spring, summer and then middle age, death without restart button. We plan and organise, program and stock up on experiences, people, memories. We are charge and as a teenager cannot wait till, we can decide which tune we want to play on our drums.

We know, we check out and do but living needs a lot of flexibility. Understanding the basic rules of living and of interaction, accepting and adapting them then making new rules as we go along and hit hurdles that had not been marked on the planning calendar and had never made it on our shopping lists of life.

How different are we from the first humans, really? Whose worries were as ours in as much as they were plagued but the basic tenants that make our days. What do I eat tonight, where do I rest my head? How can I keep my family warm in the deepest of winter, can I afford a new bag for the coming wedding?

What will the future hold for me? How will my children survive without me to lead them and show them the way? In the middle of our lives rushing by, carrying us along motorways and internet highways, we might have to relearn to do human things. To keep each other warm, to share a meal and to take time out to be ourselves.

And then we had Covid and still have. Pointing his nasty head like a demon every time we believe we are the winners. We confine, vaccinate, bury, and live somehow through it all. Wear masks but not to rob the bank. Wash our hands but not to sit down for a meal. We distance not because we do not like the other but because we do. We cannot share meals but a cheeky wink behind the sunglasses. We learned to waved and know that over hugging was counterproductive.

Our flats became our caves, taking public transport a bit of a challenge for the Covid warrior. The queue outside the coop became the new partying and it was much more representative of our society. The harassed young dad with a baby who has not slept since he was born. The granny worried about all those strangers in mask standing at a distance but too close, so close. The husband in suit and ties who never went food shopping in his life but had no choice now as his wife and his mum were both ill with you know what.

We huddled together and formed bubbles or artificial groups who can only exist among themselves. Anybody not officially part might get fined or worth. We shake our heads in disbelief when will it all be over and accept that those decision are not of our remit. Patience and accommodation to circumstances keep us on the path of life and take us closer to our humanity.

In our haste and emails and busy lives, we had forgotten about ourselves who we were and what we were here for. We drugged and swallowed pills, drunk too much and laughed so loud that it became deafening in its despair, unpleasant in its imposition, not human in its need to show off and to tell.

Covid has taught again about standing and staring. Doing nothing and closing our eyes and there behind those eyes awoken and slightly tense was our life too. If we do not take the lessons we are learning into the after all this will have been for nothing and that would be a waste.