By Geoff Peck, Woosehill Church
We mostly choose to do activities we enjoy. Many of these activities involve meeting with friends and relations. These activities were either impossible or very different in recent weeks.
Lockdown also made it much more difficult to visit vulnerable people who may be in hospital or a care home or even people on their own at home. We all take care of those we love in one way or another.
During lockdown our normal ways of showing love and sharing experiences were not possible, so how do we show love during lockdown?
We could not share experiences together, but technology has given us ways of communicating.
We now have video calls on a one-to-one or in large groups. This is OK if the person we want to talk to is happy with the technology.
Phone calls are something that virtually everybody is familiar with and has access to.
Another option is email, which most people can access. If all else fails, there is always a letter put through a letter box or in a post box.
No matter how we communicate with those we love, the important thing is that we do so regularly.
Does it matter if people we know do not bother to contact us? I thought about this the other day after
I contacted somebody, and he did not contact me back.
I then thought about it in a different way. I said to myself: would my life be richer if I continued to meet this person? The answer was yes, so it did not matter if he had contacted me. I will contact him again because it will make my life better.
Other friends I phone, and they never phone me back, but my life is richer for the conversations I have with them, so I will continue to do it.
Consider making the effort to contact your friends even if they do not contact you.
Geoff Peck is a member of Woosehill Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
