2020-07-01RedUK

EDITOR’S LETTER

3

July 2020 | REDONLINE.CO.UK

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I’m sitting at my kitchen table,

wondering when things will ever

get back to normal – or if there can

truly be a ‘normal’ as we previously

knew it. Many people have lost loved

ones, or their jobs, or the certainty

of how much money will be on their

paycheque each month. We are

now stepping forward with trepidation

towards something new, but we are irrevocably changed.

Yet for many of us – myself included – this experience

has brought some unexpected positives, too. With the

solitude and scaling back, we have rediscovered what it

feels like to have time on our hands, instead of the pressure

that comes with being permanently overstretched. There

is space to think, read and exercise. We have been able

to spend quality time (so much of it!) with our kids and

partners. We have found joy in the smallest places.

We will never take so much for granted again.

While homeschooling has been, frankly, torturous, I’ve

loved watching my daughters conjure their own creative

endeavours to get through each day, and in spending so

much time with them, I feel even closer to them than before.

And because I haven’t had my three-hour commute into

London, I’ve managed to paint two bedrooms, plant lavender

in the garden, bake in abundance and walk by the sea each

day. I’ve also devoured Normal People, Homeland and

Unorthodox, completed a month-long ‘glowy skin’ regime

with Balance Me, discovered cool new brands via styling box

service Stitch Fix and started a book/clothes swap/sourdough

club with the lovely women in my neighbourhood – each of

us leaving regular goodies on one another’s doorsteps.

I’ve also noticed I am sleeping better, looking better (apart

from the roots!), feeling healthier and, despite still fretting

about the economy/our amazing NHS/my elderly parents,

I’m generally less anxious and more balanced.

So my question is this: how do we return to our

‘normal’ lives, while retaining the versions of

ourselves we’ve become outside of them?

Editor Sarah Tomczak

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