We've Changed

Pic: Tangerine Towers on my 50th birthday - the rascals! :)

A year of our lives (almost) lockdown has cost

It’s easy to focus on what we have lost

Yet in between all of the things we can’t do

There’s been lessons aplenty and eyes opened too

Who knew we’d be pros at both Zooming and Teamsing?

Who knew we’d be learning to yoga by streaming?

New skills in web quizzing and DIY fixing

In making and baking and then, ooh Joe Wixing!

But deeper than this something else has changed too

Our day to day lives we are looking at new

Depending on where we’re in life’s journey now

New questions are being asked: what, where, when and how?

Those who were furloughed soon realised with shock 

They missed simple comforts of being ‘on clock’  

The routine of working gives purpose to all

When this is removed, we’re more likely to fall

For managers mid, sudden remoteness meant

That managing people was even more rent 

With challenges never encountered before

They learned on the job while remote teams were born

For those at the end of a longer career

The working from home was at first hard to steer

But soon they felt comfort with new flexible rules

With using new tech in the place of old tools 

Relationships already struggling with doubt

Lockdown it dug hidden differences out

The virus showed life is too short to stay sad

So we heard of new break ups and new make ups were had  

We all saw more clearly that life is so short

When hearing the stories our media brought

For many there’s been much personal loss and real pain

Which then makes you question your whole life again

We all look ahead to when lockdown is done

Towards getting back ‘normal’ and having some fun 

But the key thing we’ll ask is what normal now means 

It challenges all - our hopes and our dreams

Material things seem less vital now we

Know the threat of a future we can’t even see

Dystopian films seem somehow less infantile

The control we once felt now feels more fragile 

How long do we each have to be here and see

All we had envisioned we’d wanted to be?

A year, maybe two, maybe decades, who knows?

So let’s live, laugh and love life, wherever it goes