Breakout Day!

 

Over the last two weeks we have been in 'Self-Isolation' at The Manse.  It came about because one of our sons tested positive for Covid.  He had very mild symptoms and is now fully receovered.  It was a very 'real' moment when his results came back, quickly followed by a text message from NHS Track and Trace instructing every member of the family to pull up the preverbial 'drawbridge' for fourteen days since he first showed symptoms.  Suddendly that which we had talked about 'theorectically' for eight months became for us a 'reality'.

Then, last Monday I started to have a high temperature, so I too was banished to the bedroom awaiting my test results.  Both our son and I had meals left outside our doors, spoke to other family members via the phone and were forbidden all contact with the dog, who by now was utterly confused as to what was going on.  In the end my test results came back negative (hooray) as it seems I simply had a common cold.  This meant on Friday I escaped the bedroom, and today we can all breakout from the house, including the dog who hasn't had a walk for two weeks!

I suspect it's been said time and again since March that it is the little, 'ordinary' things we miss most when they are taken away.  For me it was the casual family conversations in the hallway, the sharing of a meal or watching TV with others and, of course, my daily walk around Chorleywood Common with Pip.  I went from walking on average 3 miles a day to 0.3!

I met our neighbour the other day and he said to me It's not the foreign holidays I miss, it's just popping in the see the family.

Well, we seem to be entering more hope-filled days thanks to the wonderful work of scientists and we give thanks for their work which, soon we hope, will be a blessing to us all.

May you, today, know God's joy and peace in all you do - and I look forward to seeing some of you on Zoom at tonight''s Church Meeting.