About spring and loss

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/05/2022 (1415 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Spring is a time of new life and renewal. We usually see buds appearing on trees and bushes, and green shoots breaking through the ground from once drab brown lawns. This spring seems to have a different sense about it with its starts and stops, thaws, fresh snow, and plenty of rain. Although the pandemic has changed to endemic, COVID-19, with its starts and indecisive stops, is still among us. Individually and collectively, we have all suffered loss in the last two years.

As people slowly emerge from their winter hibernation and see friends and community members again, I hear about the loss that people have suffered – loss of partners and having to grieve in isolation. My mother passed away a year ago, my mother-in-law a few months ago. People have experienced loss of jobs, premature loss of careers, loss of friendships and relationships, people have been unfriended and have unfriended because of differing philosophies and ideologies on COVID-19.

As if COVID-19 hasn’t caused enough loss, lives are lost every day as a senseless war rages in Ukraine and we witness tragedy on the news without apparent evidence of it ever ceasing. If my father and his family had not immigrated as refugees to Canada from Ukraine almost 100 years ago, that could be my family and me fleeing for our lives now. People are witness to atrocities they will never forget. My condolences to the families in Ukraine that have suffered loss.

Although things here are supposed to be getting back to pre-COVID times, things will never be the same again because loss and memories stay with us — loss of family members, relatives, close friends, premature loss of physical and mental health due to isolation and loneliness, loss of friendships and relationships to ideological disparity. Families have been torn apart and communities have suffered loss. Dormant gardens, yards, and sidewalks collect winter’s tears this spring.