No words

my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

Sometimes something happens that knocks you so completely off your axis that it puts every other little thing in your life into perspective.

When bad things happen to good, good people, it makes you question the way the world works, but it also makes you look at what’s around you with a fresh eye.

So you didn’t make that latest sales target and the boss is mad at you – who cares, there’ll be other sales. So the train is delayed and you’re late for a meeting – meh – you’ll get there.  The idiot who cut you up at the roundabout, took the parking space you were getting ready to reverse into, or shouted at you for getting in their way in Sainsburys – let it go. So you disagree politically with your neighbour – that just makes for ineresting debate. You and your family were on opposite sides of the great Brexit divide, were you? It’s done, it doesn’t matter now. In the great scheme of things, none of this is important.

This weekend has made all this clear to me in the worst way possible – if you know, you know.

Do me a favour, gentle readers – those friends that you haven’t seen for ages because life and Covid and all that other stuff got in the way: ring them, arrange to meet, catch up. Ask them how they are, how they really are. That shirt or frock you bought that was really too expensive and you’re keeping for ‘best’: if you love it, then wear it, don’t keep it in the wardrobe. Your friends and family, your loved ones: hug them a little tighter and for a little longer than before. Appreciate them, even when they annoy you, even when you disagree with them and tell them what they mean to you. Let them know that you want to help, even though you both know there’s nothing that can be done.

For my friends – two in particular – know this: you are loved and we are here for you.

X

 

About Fiona Russell-Horne

Group Managing Editor across the BMJ portfolio.

Check Also

1663841075168

Get your yellow on for #MaddiesDay

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold it would …