It was March 12, 2020. A lifetime ago. Or was it just the other day?
My husband and I had tickets to a concert in Saskatoon. We waited all day for word it might be cancelled. The NBA had suspended its season the day before. The NHL's announcement came that morning. But the show went ahead.
So much about that evening is fresh in my mind. A wonderful meal at a favorite restaurant. I remember the people at the table next to us. Yes, the table right next to us was filled. Â At the concert we were seated amongst hundreds of others. Shoulder to shoulder we sat as we cheered and applauded in the shared experience.
Yes, so much remains fresh. Yet so much seems so distant. The next morning the show’s Regina performance was cancelled. Had we just attended one of the last live shows in the province? Turns out we had.
Hour by hour events were postponed. Schools moved on-line. Businesses shut their doors to the public. Many were asked to work from home. Those whose work couldn't be relocated found themselves in uncertain situations, and we quickly expanded the definition of what it meant to be a frontline worker.
How we shopped, worshipped, and entertained ourselves changed; and in what was probably the most uncomfortable transition, we recognized how much we craved interaction and hugs from family and friends, when restrictions put up obstacles.
We don't know when it will be, but one day we will look at our lives as BC and AC – before COVID and after COVID. That’s nothing new, because actually, life is full of those before and after moments. Things are one way before an event; much different after.
Getting married. Starting a family. Retiring. A diagnosis. Losing someone you love. Moving to a new city. The list is potentially quite long. These types of events happen to us personally. Individually. What we've experienced this past year has been global. The before and after has been felt on such an enormous scale and yet at the same time has most definitely been very personal and individual. Lives have been lost. Jobs are gone. Plans set aside. We all had to get used to new ways of doing daily activities.
The year 2020 was history making. An understatement to be sure, yet the same could, and should, be said about every year of human history. Life is always changing. Huge events shape nations, personal moments alter lives. All of them combine to create the before and after that we all experience.
It's easy to point to some events and clearly see their immediate impact on our day-to-day. Others happen far more gradually, sometimes without us taking note. It makes me wonder if our move into the after-COVID-life might be just as imperceptible.
Yes, we're waiting for big announcements to signal major change, but even as that happens, each individual will be making personal choices as to when they will dip their toes back into what we mistakenly call normal.
Because life is a series of these transitions. It is a constant flow of before and after that bring continuous change to what we know. Nothing stays the same. So maybe we shouldn't be talking about getting back to life as we knew it. Why not set our sights higher? How about better than we remember? Perhaps that's what the "after" will bring--greater appreciation for what in the rear view mirror seemed just so ordinary.
We will know we have entered it when we refrain from complaining about being cramped in venues or on airplanes and just be happy to be occupying a seat. It will be when we aren't grumbling about the lineup at the store and are grateful instead that the places we like to shop are still there. Maybe it will be when we worry less about how the house looks and just eagerly look forward to having family and friends around the table again.
Rather than sitting in anticipation of the next big thing in our lives, maybe the 'after' will be seeing the amazing blessing in all the little things that were part of the before. Those things that might have seemed terribly ordinary, are in fact, really quite extraordinary. That's my outlook.
