Beauty 365 … Stories of Love and Life for Everyday

“When all of this is over…”

“When all of this is over…”

“When all of this is over…”

Day 9 of lock-down was another beautiful sunny day on Phillip Island. Our holiday home is situated right on the foreshore, so we have huge, uninterrupted views from our upstairs windows. Truly, it is paradise, and yet I am constantly catching myself, either spoken or unspoken, beginning my sentences with, “When all of this is over…”! Of course, “this” being the pandemic that is overtaking our world at the moment.

I find myself fixated on everything I can’t have (oh my goodness, has Spotlight closed its doors yet?!), everything I can’t do (really missing my running machine back home!), and all the people I can’t be with (am aching to see my parents again!).

In my head, I am solving financial problems, exploring contingency plans for our daughter’s wedding, preparing for next term’s schooling arrangements etc., etc., always with my head in the future. And I don’t like it.

I have a repertoire of great films that I find give me direction and answers to almost all of life’s difficulties. On day 9, I dug deep and came up with a classic from The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy wakes up after returning from her amazing adventures over the rainbow.

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?”

So today, I choose to focus on the beauty surrounding me now, my husband and children with me now, and the simple ways I can love better this moment. After all, there truly is “no place like home”.