I get to go to the office today – which is a 40 minute drive on a country highway where I probably won’t see too many other cars and I’ll have the opportunity to pop a podcast on and enjoy a total of 1.5 hours of solitude.
It feels weird in a lock down world. I’ve spoken to others who talk of considerable anxiety over doing such things (work, driving etc) after such a long period of not going far away from the couch. I can’t relate. I’m nothing but excited. And when I feel such excitement it’s an opportunity to appreciate just how far along the recovery path I have come (nearly used the word journey there, time to delete the blog and hide in a cave forever offering apologies to any God that will listen. And maybe sacrifice the odd creature just to be on the safe side.)
In fact yesterday I did quite a few things that feel abnormal – all within the rules and allowed but it still felt wrong. I bumped into one guy who is trying to get to the next state in order to see a family member who is in palliative care – a story straight out of Upright. I hope he makes it and is allowed to make the journey.
On reflection, it’s going to take time to get used to the new normal but one thing I can take from all this is that when change happens these days, I can embrace it instead of hiding in a corner and banging my head off a window. Anxiety really is a fine line between excitement and utter terror.