Love in the time of COVID19

 

1^st September 2021

I just cried while talking to an acquaintance outside my local coffee shop. She was standing there holding the handle of a pram with a two-year-old inside while wearing a 6-month-old baby in a harness on her chest. I met this lady a few years back when I first brought home a rescue dog and we were both walking in the park. She has a chihuahua called Malfoy and our two small dogs didn’t get along, they still don’t.  

We met on occasion in the dog park, this lady and I, and would have a quick chat before our naughty dogs would insist that we go different ways by snapping or growling at one another. A few years back she had her first little girl, and it turns out that I hadn’t seen her for a while because there she was today with two kids. I had to do a double take because I thought the first baby was the one in the pouch on her chest, but I was wrong.

The point is that I felt so happy for her to now have two beautiful babies, that I cried. I was wearing a mask of course so she couldn’t see my lips or face contort in that way they do just before you cry. She just saw the tears that streamed from my eyes and ran underneath the mask. I apologised for my sudden outburst of emotion, maybe she doesn’t need it on a Tuesday* morning ten weeks or so into Sydney’s lockdown with two little ones to look after.

She kindly said what a strange and difficult time we’re going through and it’s okay to feel like it’s all too much. I insisted to her that I was fine and doing well, all things considered, including how much harder many others have it right now. And the thing is that my tears were not a sign of sadness. They were truly tears of joy.

Joy at the miracle of life appearing in the form of these two lovely girls and their proud mama. Joy that we can share this moment standing in the sun with the smell of coffee on the gentle breeze. Joy that two women can connect and ask after each other and their lives and families and share some of themselves. Joy at the love that filled my heart at that moment and overflowed. Joy at the genuine sense that we are not separate, but one.

Sending love to all, K.x

*I just realised on rereading this that it is Wednesday. Whatever.