Moments of Now.

We're now in the sixth week of UK lockdown. In my crazy house, with my husband, 3 (almost) teenagers and 2 student lodgers, there have been some lovely moments and some really tough ones.

My mothering instinct has meant that I have wanted to make everything okay for everyone all the time, but that was never going to be possible. Everyone has different perceptions of this "space" we've been given and different ways of reacting to it. But more than that, we've needed to recognise that those perceptions and reactions vary for each one of us from day to day, and moment to moment. Trying to predict how we will feel tomorrow is impossible.

My eldest son and I have had many conversations about how different time feels now, and how we're both feeling about the different days and moments we find ourselves living in. This poem grew out of one of those conversations.

In this interlude
between what was and what will be
time takes on a different shape,
The linear progression of days halts
and we find ourselves here
living in the unpredictable moments of now.

Moments where time slows
to a leisurely amble in the sunshine
and we joyfully embrace this new rhythm,
Hear the music formed by the inclusion of the silent rest,
Wander in deserted spaces,
Blow dandelion clocks to check the time.
Our world is at a standstill,
and creation breathes.

But there are other moments
when there is no respite from the timelessness,
and our breathing space becomes a suffocating vacuum,
We strive to fill the hiatus with activity,
surround ourselves with a sea of distant faces,
familiar but barely connected.
Our world is unrecognisable
and creation weeps.

Pausing in the gap
between the breathing and the weeping
we glimpse the promise of tomorrow,
recognise that all moments pass
and we need not fear
accepting the unpredictable moments of now.