Real Life is Now

When the pandemic started there was a lot of fear and a lot that we didn’t know about it. So much was being published about it in the media that I felt like we had a battle on two fronts, one against this virus and the other against the negativity and fear that the media was causing. Looking back I can see how I reacted just as I was intended to, with fear and isolating myself. I didn’t sign up as a volunteer as I not only feared for my own health, but also of my son’s who is still living with me. I regret that now. I don’t think I gave a good example of faith and confidence in God to my son although he would disagree and say I did the right thing. I did attend Mass virtually as much as I could during lockdown and then I went to church when services were allowed again and I did this until I found out that the friend I was taking to Mass had been in contact with someone who had covid. I had the test and fortunately it was negative. It did rock my confidence again.

I was praying with a friend in our Mother’s Prayers group and I came across a reflection by C S Lewis when I opened my NRSV Bible (The C S Lewis Bible): ‘The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’ or ‘real life’. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom or own’s own imagination.’ This was a reflection on Psalm 37:8.

We talk about getting back to our real lives when this pandemic is over, but really we are living this now. Every day counts and is a God given day. How we behave especially towards others matters at this time if not more than at others. Little acts of kindness matter as much as grand gestures. Contacting people and asking if they are okay especially if they live alone; smiling at someone even though you need to be 2m away and wearing a mask rather than ignoring them etc.

I’m working on all of this too and trying not to see these times as ‘something to get through’ but rather as something ‘to grow spiritually in’.

Take care and God bless x

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