Waiting for Christmas

 A strange Christmas, a strange year. 

Lockdowns, facemasks, tiers, bubbles, households meeting rules, travel and quarantines, predictions of doom from increase of infections after Christmas .... a never ending saga brought in by Covid-19. New rules, new concepts, new terminology.

In short new way of life for almost a year. We adapt and find new ways. 

We use facemasks as fashion statements, we replace business travel with online meetings, events, workshops. We moved our office home and with it our daily life is upside down with kids schooling online, buying online, a virtual world with restricted human touch. Kisses not allowed, hugs restricted, the other is a danger to keep meters away from.

Yes we adapted, but it affected our mental health, and we do not know how it will affect our children. They do not understand.

My granddaughter of 4 years old, when I asked her 'what do you want for Christmas', ''a grandma'' she answered. That did it, I decided to brave the travel restrictions, the quarantine, the social mixing rules. But then, it is not as if I am enjoying it fully, it is marred by anxiety. I am trying my best not to let affect me. But at a deep internal level it does.

There is lots to learn from this year. I will not talk about socio economic consequences and lessons that countries and government and specially as to how to allocate the budget, if health and medical research need to be upped, maybe reducing military spending? 

In my modest experience, I discovered that we can do a lot online. Yet it could not replace the human contact that onsite workshops generate. Human interaction is a learning tool in itself. Then, I have no idea why online meetings and trainings are tiring. After one hour I feel exhausted while I can give a training for a full day and feel less tired.

On another level, home office is conductive to increase in productivity. Less loss of time commuting and better distribution of time. Yet it requires self discipline which is not a fait accompli for all.

The most important lesson is that meeting friends, hugging loved ones, kissing people when meeting, handshakes, all of these small gestures are essential to our emotional health and should be cherished.