Abandoned

I took this shot last week from the bottom of the marketplace in my town. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this deserted- well, certainly not during daylight hours, anyway. 

It is very strange times indeed that we are living in. In many respects, I find myself comforted by the calm and the very slow pace of life. However, I’m starting to miss family, friends, the routine of being in the classroom and the day-to-day of work but I can’t think about this right now. 

To do so would be selfish. 

I had (I guess, for selfish reasons) not tuned into the news for a day or two but when I caught up with it earlier, I was abruptly rattled out of the bubble which I’d been comfortably enveloped within: the figures have soared and the sadness exists far closer to home than I realised. It was an entirely sobering experience and one which put me in a somewhat pensive mood, well into the evening. 

I have an impulse to try to look for instant fixes but for this, there isn’t one. Now more than ever, our sense of compassion needs to be at the forefront of every choice that we make. We have a collective responsibility amidst all of this and whilst there’s very little I can do as an individual, perhaps I can make more effort to keep up-to-date with what is happening out there...

The market place in my town may be empty but the hospitals and leisure centres of neighbouring towns are certainly not. I wish there was more I could do but there isn’t. We’ve been asked, on a global scale to stay at home so that’s what I’ll continue to do (with the exception of a daily allowance of fresh air...) but I think as of today, the bubble needs to go; it may have been preventing me from seeing things through a wider lense and perhaps this wider lense is rather Imperative right now. 

Stay healthy. Stay safe.