Weary

Throw your loving arms around me
I am weary, let me rest

It is bon ton now on the socials to declare that if you haven’t lost anyone (close) to Covid and you are still holding a job, then you should shut up about having had a difficult year and just get on with it.

I do not agree with this sentiment.

I agree that we should just get on with it, because otherwise what can you do? But I do not agree about shutting up.

It has been a difficult time for most of us.
Yes there are ways in which it could be much much more difficult, and for many people it has been: refugees on Lesbos whose tents burned to the ground, residents of Beyruth who saw their city blown up, people in Bangladesh who have seen their houses slip under the waters, I could go on and on.
No I do not think that our current ordeal equals that of our grandparents during World War II – for one thing, nobody is getting shot in the streets or deported to camps and we are not eating flower bulbs just yet.
But YES this lack of social contacts and interaction, as well as increased visibility of inequality and injustice, is wearing us down. My friend P. in London told me that his wife sat down at the breakfast table and told him “I have a heavy heart today”. They are both around 80 years old. They’ve been in WWII. But their hearts are heavy now.

It is okay to feel heavy-hearted, and it is okay to say this out loud on whatever (social) media you use, because we need to find and build connections where we can. If me complaining about not being able to go to a café to write forges a connection with a fellow café-buzz-needing writer, all the better! These are trying times.

So trying, in fact, that I stopped blogging my tea advent calendar halfway through. I was simply exhausted and needed my energy for other matters such as work and my two incredible daughters. I did drink the teas, or most of them anyway! I even have some pictures to prove it:

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I am sorry to disappoint you by not finishing my tea journey and leaving you dangling. I know I will be blogging about tea before long, if not from a calendar. I will also be blogging about other things, starting new categories and menu items, and gearing up some new adventure, I am sure. I bought a book about writing mysteries, I am thinking of starting a weekly episodes tale (instead of the daily instalment we had in November which was a bit taxing), I have started designing handmade game-in-a-box things…

For now, however, I am weary – let me rest.