I  wanted to write about something different this week but after having to re-start this several times (something which isn’t a usual occurrence for me), I’ve accepted that resistance is futile.

One thing I’ve learnt from my now two weeks of self-isolation is that it’s easier to just let things be and not try to force yourself into an anxiety-laden frenzy. Yes, some people are managing to get up at four in the morning and do 10 yoga routines before having their porridge and superfruit smoothie, but even more of us are sitting on our sofas nibbling on chocolate chip cookies like nervous hamsters while waiting for Charmaine Gauci to give us her daily sermon, and that is okay too.

With the absence of touch and non-verbal communication, the use of words has never been more important, and yet, I have never struggled more to get people to understand what I am saying. But what do we have at the moment except words? Words of reassurance and despair flow out in equal measure every day covering most of us in veils of opaque confusion and grief. Grief for what we had and for what we are scared will be. I think if I were allowed just one word to describe this time, I would choose the word ‘fragility’.

There is only one other time that I can remember feeling this word the way I do now, and that was when I once had the opportunity to witness open-heart surgery. As I craned my neck to get a better look and saw the few, thin strands of tissue keeping our hearts pumping, I couldn’t believe that our entire existence depended on so very little.

See this as the Earth’s reminder that nothing lasts forever and that we are all less than a blink of the eye of the universe’s history

All our thoughts, however grand, and all our world, however rich, literally depend on these strands working the way they should. And yet every day, as we go about our businesses and complain about trivialities, it doesn’t even cross our minds that one random Tuesday when nothing of note was going to happen, it could all end. Wasn’t it James Joyce who had said “you could die just the same on a sunny day”?

I think that now more than ever, it is important for us to carry this word around with us and maybe between the cleaning out of our closets and our pantries, we could also extend this metaphor to cleaning out our minds of all that is extra and unnecessary.

If there is a grudge you’ve been holding onto for years and you no longer even know why it started to begin with, let it go. If there is something beautiful you’ve been meaning to say to someone, set it free and tell them. Read the book that you promised yourself you would five years ago that you’ve been using as a coaster for your coffee mugs and bake that impossible looking cake that is going to take you hours to ice.

See this as the Earth’s reminder that nothing lasts forever and that we are all less than a blink of the eye of the universe’s history. We should feel that we have an obligation to leave this world better than we found it, and that means being there for others when we can and understanding that, although technology has distanced us from this truth, we are in fact part of something far greater.

This too shall pass but what we shouldn’t allow to pass is the opportunity to take this experience and allow it to make us better. May this coming week give us better news and clearer skies.