Today marks eight weeks since I arrived home from my whirlwind trip to Bangladesh. Two weeks of self-isolation in the spare room away from Mr Weka on my return morphed into a 4.5 week long country-wide lockdown. Restrictions eased into a state of limbo two weeks ago when non-essential businesses were allowed to begin trading again and people rushed out to buy the takeaways they'd been craving for the past month. Today we've entered alert level 2: not so restricted but still not quite normal.
Eight weeks of lockdown has been a surreal experience. It's something we could never have predicted would happen just a few months ago and may never experience on this scale again. People seem to be divided into two camps: those who felt overly restricted, grieving their freedom and craving contact with the outside world versus those who embraced the solace afforded by the safety of a few weeks at home.
As a pair of introverts, Mr Weka and I have actually enjoyed the quieter pace of lockdown. Our single success indicator for the lockdown period was to emerge with all four of our parents still alive. We made it - just. Sure, our businesses have both taken a huge hit, but we'd prefer to weather the storm of several months with zero income in return for the health and safety of our family, friends and wider community. I realise how privileged I am to be able to say that.
The streets are now busy again. I'm in no rush to go out and get a haircut, eat at restaurants and bars or hug crowds of people. I think it will take some time to reduce my heightened sense of caution that resulted from fleeing a developing country at the start of global pandemic. And I know we're not completely out of danger yet.
As for returning to normal, I'm intrigued by the urgency I see. It seems the same people whose wellbeing was threatened by the stresses of living at an unsustainable pace are the ones who have most yearned for a return to the routines they've always dreamed of escaping. Does the desire for familiarity outweigh the stresses of uncertainty? Perhaps. But I don't see much benefit in returning to what wasn't working before.
What would a new normal look like? Is it really possible to create the normal we want rather than settling for the normal we know? Can I keep waking up without an alarm, being super-productive while working from the safety of my home office, cooking healthy meals, baking my own bread and enjoying the luxury of a daily lunch time walk along the beach? Or must I forfeit it all in favour of peak hour commuting on public transport to open plan offices with hot desks, working through lunch breaks then collapsing in a heap at the end of a day or week, all in the name of 'normal'? I know what makes more sense to me. I guess only time will tell.
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