A year without a hug

The current pandemic has affected all of our lives in so many different ways. The analogy of us all being in our boat weathering the storm resonates with me as I reflect on how each and every one of us is having our own journey through this. Our boats though may be different, as too the ferocity of the storm.

This article in The Guardian about the absence of physical touch left me thinking of all those who have not been ‘touched’ for so long. For some this may be a welcome thing, that actually being able to have ones own physical space without intrusion may bring comfort. For others it may have brought so much distress and unhappiness. We are physical beings, we evolved from tribes. The isolation both physically and mentally is distressing, the absence of the hug for comfort, celebration, greeting and as a way of showing we exist (literally one of the ways we know we exist is by our physical form) is one of the many challenges I think we face in this lockdown life.