The Great Reset

This was published in ‘Discover Portrush’, the journal of the Portrush Heritage Society in March 2021. Members of Portrush Writers reflected on their experiences of lockdown during 2020 and 2021. Portrush Writers have met for more than twenty years under the leadership of the inimitable Kate Murphy. The group adheres to the tenets of Amherst Writers of America (AWA) whose protocols create a safe and inspiring environment for writers to grow and develop. yellowferret joyfully participates and acknowledges a great debt to Kate and all the Portrush Writers

The Great Reset

Is it wicked to love this so much? To love a magical space of suspended animation, the chance to breathe and feel and live and do what matters? To be so happy seems unfair when so many are locked in, lost in fear and loss and loneliness.

I was given a chance to discover how all the tiny teeth of the cogs of my being can sync with those of the cosmos and suddenly everything is moving. I am really living, not doing what you do or doing what you have to do or doing what they want you to do. It is a gift. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.

So I am looking forward to now and to seeing how long I can make now last, like a held breath, so no atom of the oxygen is unappreciated. At Davos, the ones that hold the strings said it is a ‘Great Reset’. Well, that’s me and the macro- economy switching off and switching on again. The economist at the right-wing think tank said, ‘You will have nothing, and you will be happy’. Sounds probable, but I just cut all the strings and stopped taking orders, so we will see.

I can’t remember what I thought I wanted so recently, but it doesn’t matter in our completely different brave new world. Value has shifted to the mind and to knowledge, to communication and connection. The world is turning faster. I can feel it. We are not out of the clutches of the pestilence yet but already there is a steady pressing on the accelerator, time is speeding up. We are rushing into our zero-emission, low-carbon, all-renewable, hydrogen-fuelled, clean, green energy future.

Community is getting sturdier by the day like a healthy toddler. Ciaran and his brother left a bag of spuds at every front door on the island. People are sharing seedlings and cuttings and even my humble horticultural ambitions have developed beyond alfalfa sprouts. I am learning about radiantly beautiful creativity of the people around me when I hardly knew their names before, realising our uniqueness and the bizarre correspondences between us. Red Boat Charlie says she will teach me to swim in the sea, so I don’t have to be brave on my own; it helps to have a hand to hold as you step into a new universe.  Impossibly, but somehow, every day is happier.