The New Normal

So here we are in week 7 of lockdown (I think – to be honest I’m losing track of what day is what, and all the weeks are blurring into one!) and I’ve been thinking for a while about starting up my blog again). I wasn’t sure where to start, but then I remembered the Bible verse that came to me right at the beginning of lockdown, from I Corinthians 13, which says “…now these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.” I had a sense even back then that somehow this period of lockdown, however difficult and uncertain and painful at times, might just help us as individuals and as a society, to re-evaluate what really matters in life – to ask ourselves what things do we want to let go of and what things do we want to “remain” – or maybe even create, start or change – once lockdown is over?

I went back and read 1 Corinthians 13 in full, and it is one of my favourite chapters in the Bible and probably one of the most well-known, as the verses describing God’s perfect love are often read out at weddings and funerals:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

And then it hit me! I could take each key word in this passage and use them as a theme for a new blog post each week, so the first one would be about patience, then kindness and so on – and taking the whole chapter together, that gives me 25 themes to explore over the coming weeks – maybe even enough to see us through until the end of lockdown (well a girl can dream!)…

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the “new normal” we are entering into, and what that might look like, and the truth is, none of us know at this point. We do know that life won’t go back to how it used to be for a while, and possibly might not ever look exactly how it used to, and maybe that’s a good thing, if it means that we choose to prioritise what really matters in life – looking after each other, looking after our precious planet and looking after ourselves. “Be kind” is another phrase that is being used a lot and my deepest hope is that we genuinely do emerge out of this difficult time as a kinder, more loving and more responsible society. But what about you – what do you hope the ‘new normal’ will look like? I’d love to hear your thoughts.