Many of my clients struggle with exiting the perceived safety of lockdowns. The sense of control those external rules gave us. But we were never in control in the first place. Life and time and seasons will continue to happen to us: we are not figures in a painting.
March 2020 seemed like a dystopian fantasy novel when the reality of the pandemic started to affect us. Ever the optimist, I remember being alone at my office where I consulted, taking phone meetings with the people who worked there and who have already decided to stay safe. I took pictures of empty corridors, bars, and then when the stark reality struck: I photographed my office, loaded the potted plants into the car and cried all the way home.
I closed the front door behind me with a dreaded sense of finality. Things were changing. Closing. Quiet.
Mere days after my exit from the physical work, clients reached out virtually, and suddenly my spare room was busier than my office ever was. I upgraded technology, lights, moved the tiny desk around until I found the perfect place in the room, and a big sign on my door reminded my family: Do Not Enter – Mum is working. Inside this seclusion, things were bustling.
Fast forward more than a year and two more lockdowns, albeit less dramatic than the first, and we see the final exit from lockdown. Together with the hard lockdowns, we have witnessed, the privilege of vaccinations is sweeping us along the new road back into the world.
Although I was very busy with work online, my “real life” has become a quiet observance from a distance like a figure in an Edward Hopper Picture. I was wistfully longing for life outside. Free from the inevitable expectations that will come with living life outside these four walls, this cyber window. The exit is slow but intentional: driving further, going back to the swimming pool, slowly filing the family diary with playdates and clubs and appointments and larger group gatherings. Every time we go further, we feel a little exhausted, elated and we get to be braver for next time.
Many of my clients struggle with exiting the perceived safety of lockdowns. The sense of control those external rules gave us. But we were never in control in the first place. Life and time and seasons will continue to happen to us: we are not figures in a painting.
It is time to be brave again and live outside our comfort zones.
The time has come to step outside the painting.
