When all is said and done there will be serious questions about various governments handling of the pandemic. Some choices – Eat Out to Help Out – will hopefully be roundly criticised. Others – spacing out the vaccination schedule – I hope will be viewed in the context of gambles that sometimes must be taken.
In the meantime though we have to each learn to bear with it in the best way we can. For me this means getting involved again with community work – this time through the fantastic London Renters Union who are in the process of setting up a full branch in my borough of Tower Hamlets. Definitely join them if you rent in the capital! For others I know this has been done with bread baking, or DIY.
I am learning to find pleasure in smaller things these days. Washing up dishes to the sounds of the Talking Heads. Among Us games with friends spread across the globe. A fluffy cat whose joy in life is staring out my bedroom window at the comings and goings of Whitechapel.
I haven’t written a New Years blog for a while now. In a way this is because everything globally always seems so much, and I get trapped in wanting to explain the world before I talk about myself. Consider this as a late one and an incomplete one. 2020 was a strain, but as always things blossom in the midst of shit. I know more about myself and I know more about where I want to take myself.
I started this blog back in 2015 after finally deciding to leave a stressful job and move into the political field. It’s been interesting ever since, but I’m reminded how much more faith I have in myself these days. It creeps up, ever so slowly altering within yourself until one day you take for granted that it has always been there. Prospects which seems so alien and out of reach back then are now simply lists of accomplishments.
Years might just be the way we make sense of time, but I like their opportunity for reflection. 2021 might have the same flavour as the year before but it is a stretch I am excited about. There is a fire that has been lit, cultivated by quiet reflection, and I am ready to do more of what I enjoy and prioritise that over others expectations. I have plans I am building, not quite ready to be revealed yet, but I look forward to sharing them when they are.
In the meantime I’ll be singing along with “This Must Be The Place” while I rinse out my cafetiere.
Rushaa Louise Hamid 