R

Steps walked: 16,785.

Furthest point travelled to: 1 mile – North Middlesex Hospital.

Face to face non-household interactions: 6.

Track of the day: ‘We’ll Meet Again’ – Dame Vera Lynn… obviously.

            We’re hearing a lot about ‘R’ – the reinfection rate for the coronavirus. If it’s above one, we have big problems. If it’s below one, then it’s going to fizzle out and disappear, for a while. At the moment it’s below one in the UK, and the government have big decisions to make about how to get us back towards normal with this reduced ‘R’, without risking ‘R’ rising again.

            There are always small pink and purple flowers around the hospital chapel. When I went in to offer prayers there at midday, there were some new flowers on the altar. The flowers made me smile. I wonder who picks them, where they find them, why they lay them in the chapel. I’m happy that they do. I see in those little flowers kindness and hope. I leave the chapel feeling happier, more hopeful, seeing my little world differently for the moment.

I’d like to think that when I get home I’m a bit kinder, a bit gentler and more positive with Susie, James and Barnaby. (Yes, there was that moment this afternoon when I got so irritated by some bad behaviour, that Barnaby ended up on the sofa crying, and James disappeared up a tree and sat brooding – but perhaps without the flowers it could have been much worse…). If I have treated them better, then whoever put those flowers on the altar has a reinfection rate of at least four; and I’d like to think that I’m not the only person who finds joy in the presence of those delicate petals.

The ‘R’ number, what we pass on to others. What can I do tomorrow, to increase my ‘R’ figure for kindness and laughter, for hope and delight, for joy, for love?