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We hear these words a lot these days don’t we? New normal. People talk about how things won’t be the same again; that we won’t quite go back to how things were. This might bring out feelings of fear, sadness, anger, trepidation. In contrast, some might be feeling joy, happiness or excitement at the prospect of a new normal. In some ways this current period feels like an interim period. We are waiting for lockdown restrictions to ease bit by bit until we get back to life as usual, except not as it used to be.

For those who are feeling negative about a ‘new normal’, I’d like to suggest that we all go through times of ‘new normal’ throughout our life. Look back 5 (or 10 or 15) years. What were you doing then that you are not doing now? And what are you doing now that you weren’t doing then? Maybe not much has changed, but some things have. Maybe things changed slowly so you didn’t really notice the ‘new normal’. But still, you got a ‘new normal’.

I know this current new normal is being imposed on us this time. But, even though we didn’t ask for it we can make the best of it. We can use this time as an opportunity to reflect and evaluate. For some this lockdown period has been beneficial; some of you actually prefer the way your life is right now. For others it has been difficult and you are looking forward to more, well, normality. For all of us, this is a time to figure which bits of our previous life we want to keep and which bits we are happy to say good bye to. Not just for our own sakes, but for the good of others and for the environment.