“Pandemic Perspectives”

Lockdown Morning: Stunning observations on the internal and the external moods of lockdown from Dorothy - ‘let the countryside go for a walk in you’

She is heavy with morning. As if its weight has flattened her and drained all her rivers. She stays in her dressing gown. The Bard says, ‘Let the countryside go for a walk inside you. Let the skylark rise and rise inside you. Turn yourself inside out then in again, but bring the foundlings of Black Hill and Capelaw, the rolling heather, the yellow stars of celandines to light your gloom.’ He pauses for breath. You’ve got sky from your window, he says, learn to love the sky. It’s enough for the skylark and the swift. It’ll do you too, till your feet find the ground again. Sit by the window and get to know the light. And if you need to, weep. Weep until all your tears have flowed. Empty yourself like the clouds release their rain. Pour your sadness into the day. It is big enough to hold it. When you’re all wept out, you’ll be washed like the coloured saris in the Ganges are laid out on the shores to dry. Give yourself time. The day will tiptoe back into you, whispering endearments, beckoning. Follow it. Follow it into the white blossoming on bare trees into the shades of green behind the tulips, into the heron still and sharp in the river. Into the absolute second of existence. You’re alive. Now what is it you can do? Dorothy