Wonderful write up by Vivienne in Spain 🇪🇸.

The earth whispered but you did not hear.
The earth spoke but you did not listen
The earth screamed but you turned her off.
And so I was born…

I was not born to punish you..
I was born to awaken you..

The earth cried out for help…
Massive flooding. But you didn’t listen.
Burning fires. But you didn’t listen.
Strong hurricanes. But you didn’t listen.
Terrifying Tornadoes. But you didn’t listen.

You still don’t listen to the earth when.
Ocean animals are dying due to pollutants in the waters.
Glaciers melting at an alarming rate.
Severe drought.

You didn’t listen to how much negativity the earth is receiving.
Non-stop wars.
Non-stop greed.
You just kept going on with your life..
No matter how much hate there was..
No matter how many killings daily..

It was more important to get that latest gadget than worry about what the earth was trying to tell you..
But now I am here.

And I’ve made the world stop in its tracks.
I’ve made YOU finally listen.
I’ve made you take refuge.
I’ve made you stop thinking about materialistic things..

Now you are like the earth…
You are only worried about YOUR survival.

How does that feel?

I give you fever.. as the fires burn on earth.
I give you respiratory issues.. as pollution filled  the earth’s air.
I give you weakness as the earth weakens every day.

I took away your comforts..
Your outings.
The things you would use to forget about the planet and its pain.

And I made the world stop…
And now…

YOU are having to take time to reflect on what is important in your life.

Again I am not here to punish you.. I am here to Awaken you…

When all this is over and I am gone…
Please remember these moments..

Listen to the earth.
Listen to your soul.

Stop Polluting the earth.
Stop Fighting amongst each other.

Stop caring about materialistic things.
And start loving your neighbors.

Start caring about the earth and all its creatures.
Start believing in a Creator.

Because next time I may come back even stronger….

Signed,
Coronavirus..

I was determined to have a productive Easter and maintain a level of distraction from work and the situation the world has found itself in. Again, recognising how fortunate we are not being in the front line or in the provision of essential services we were able to take advantage of what turned out to be a beautiful day. In addition to the above we also managed to move the garden shed from one side of the back yard to another which on reflection (and change of plan) wasn’t actually necessary…

JR

Turning 16 in isolation with only your two parents around you I’m sure was hardly the way the Nilay wanted to spend his 16th birthday, but there was very little choice. We hadn’t really prepared for this situation so the consolation was a collation of treats mainly of the chocolate kind. In the evening I had arranged a family zoom call to mark the occasion. I am sure there will be other opportunities later in the year to celebrate with a bit more style.

JR

One of the routines we established when Milan decided that he would stay in his hostel during lockdown was that we would do a daily zoom call at 8:00pm every night to check-in as a family to see how he was getting on and for us to share our experiences for the day. Given the list hasn’t been overly extensive on some days  we have decided to play a round or two of Codenames each night to keep the brain cells engaged.

JR