Covid Conquered             Word on the Week          22nd January 2022.

Conquered? Not quite but it certainly felt like it listening to the
Taoiseach’s broadcast last evening.   The only remnants remaining,
that would affect the majority, are the mask wearing and hand
sanitising that have become second nature to us!

It remains to be seen what the result of such freedom would be.   The
new reality of being able to move about freely and attend sporting
fixtures unhindered is heady stuff.   Two reactions can be predicted.
 The first following Prime Minister Johnston’s lead (although his
parties were a bit premature!) and hit the booze.  The other is the
mental struggle of coming to terms with liberty after such a lengthy
period of semi-isolation!

Both can wreck your head!  The first comes as the aftermath of the
party and is as debilitating as it is short lasting.   The second is
disorientating.   New life-styles have been put in place and a return
to old routines of the pre March 2020 ways of working may no longer be
desired or workable.

Change, that dreaded word, has happened and it would be difficult or
even impossible to re-wind our body-clocks to ignore those 22 months
of disruption.  The world’s billionaires would not want to.   The ten
richest of them doubled their wealth during the pandemic.   They now
own more than 3.1 billion of the world’s poor people.   To help
visualise how many that represents – it is the combined populations of
Africa and China!   Something is far wrong.

So much for the greed of man.   The birds have been making a better
existence for themselves.   Let me quote two cases.   The first is the
Little Egret who has moved north from the Continent of Europe to our
wetlands.  It is a small white heron with attractive white plumes on
crest, back and chest, black legs and bill and yellow feet.   It first
appeared here early in lockdown and although very shy of people was
first seen fishing in the Hartwell river.  It took off at a steep
angle and disappeared among some trees.

The other is the swallow.    By now he should be basking in African
sunshine.  There are a number who realised the effects of global
warming and have taken a chance of surviving winter in these islands!
  They have figured out that it saves them a 12,000 mile round trip!
Let’s hope the food supplies hold up for them.

What would be a Word that would sum up this week?   Perhaps we would
find it in Lamentations or “How” as it translates in Hebrew, “How did
this happen?” Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.   They are new every morning; great is
your faithfulness.   I say to myself, “the Lord is my portion;
therefore, I will wait for him.” (Chapter 3 verses 22 to 24).