I know… I can see it, too… the big, bright pink elephant in the room… the Sakura flowers that signal spring!
All right, all right, that’s not the elephant we all know is rolling aound in those flowers… the elephant is going by the name of COVID-19. In Germany, we areon week 4 for the “lockdown”. Here that means social distancing, no restaurants, etc, no groups larger than 2 people, but hey, at least we are still allowed to go for walks without any restriction on how far away from home that is.
But it IS getting tougher.
Even though I am considering myself very lucky: I can work from home, as are all my collegues in Frankfurt, Krakow, Paris and Houston (not sure about Shanghai, they might be going back to normal giving us all some hope, but tbh I don’t know because I do not have much contact with that office). And it is working better than anyone could’ve expected, with my company really caring that everyone is doing fine, even though we are not part of the health care business, which of course now gets some extra attention in France (Air Liquide being a manufacturer of respiratory units and provider of oxygen).
I am also super lucky to have my boyfriend here with me (who is also working full time despite the crisis). I can feel myself getting anxious oten and he seems to be able to ground me and make me see that this too shall pass… and he takes the brunt of my bad, crancy moods – which is no small feat.
Looking across the globe I see so many of my friends or their families struggle with unemployment / uncertain futues / social distancing while being alone / taking care of the kids that are all suddenly at home / worrying for loved ones who are in the middle of this pandemic / dealing with death in a time when you are not allowed to attend a funeral… I could go on, but I won’t in the hopes that this will all pass. Soon.
My heart goes out to all of you, take care <3
I hope these insignificant pictures of cherry blossoms will at least grighten your day. And serve to remind you that nature is not on lockdown and it has a lot of wonderful things to offer, ven very close to home…
