Navigating the New Normal via Isolation
LIVING THE LOCK DOWN LIFE IN AOTEAROA
On March 25, New Zealand declared a nationwide lockdown effective from 11.59 pm that night. It was also my son’s 19th birthday.
He packed his car and fled for the beach where he could stay in a family bach and he also took my dog, Ranger with him both for protection and company. It was a sad parting for me as that left only myself and my youngest, 17-year-old son in the house plus my other dog, Pacino, securely chained to his kennel outside.
The first day was a peculiar novelty as our normally suburban street was very quiet with only distant sounds of a few children playing on their back lawns. Now and then a neighbor’s stereo would strike up for a few songs before going quiet again. I would have to hazard a guess that the quiet was not a calm or a sleepy peace but rather a subdued and anxious wonderment of what was going to happen next.
In this very uncertain of times, it would seem that our local community is treading cautiously through these days when we do not know what will happen next while we await the midday broadcasts on the state of our nation.
Daily the cases of coronavirus rise and we now have a national total of 368 though it will have increased overnight. The virus is no longer being caught solely from overseas visitors but is being community transmitted.
Yesterday, on Day 2, our family had our first lockdown drama as we christened it once the drama was over. My son had left our dog Ranger unchained outside on the porch of his temporary but new “home”. Ranger obviously chased after something in the dark and much to my son's dismay he became lost.
When he phoned me yesterday morning my immediate thoughts were, “how can he go door knocking or searching neighbouring properties when we are in isolation and we must keep a two-meter distance - that’s if people will even open their doors to strangers?” Or if he was impounded, how would we deal with the impound people. Would it take days and hundreds of dollars before we could secure his release? Or if he died how could we give him a family funeral when we are all supposed to be in isolation or at best, “social distancing”.
But my worst thought of course was "what if I never saw him again?"
Mercifully he “came back” shortly after my son had called me and I cried tears of relief that my “boy” was safe even though I couldn’t see him or hold him.
Yesterday I heard a car alarm going off which in the normal times of three days ago I would probably not have even heard beneath the din of everyday life. Now I wonder who the car belongs to and is it getting stolen. When I heard the fire siren this morning I thought, it can hardly be a car accident there are barely any cars on the road. Is it a fire?
All these new re-thinking's of a life that daily evolves into a different normal and as we rush to grasp each new evolution, like mist on the mountains, this normal evaporates into a different reality for us to briefly learn before we move to the next brief steps of a quickly changing world but still a stagnating existence.
Our homes and those who live in them with us, now have become our “bubble” the new term for life, home, family — your tribe. But I have other bubbles scattered around me within a 30-mile radius and my Mum is in one of those bubbles and still, she remains one of the few people on planet Earth who does not have internet. However, she does have a landline which I ring her on each day from my mobile phone with unlimited calling.
These frequent calls have always been normal for us and I thank God that it will never change.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment