It’s the smallest things that cheer us up and make us smile. We cannot alter the restrictions of the pandemic.

The best choice is to get on with it. How we get on with it is important. Not listening to COVID-19 news is a good start. It brings me down. It is incessant.

If we had to know the logistics of all the childhood vaccines and the flu and pneumonia vaccines in the same manner as the COVID-19 vaccine; I think we’d go crazy entirely. We’ve had enough of it.

Break away to music or podcasts that inspire you. Buy a jigsaw online. Get out to the garden. Listen to Michael McIntyre’s bath temperature story. Find something that will make you smile.

A friend of mine sent me the Jerusalema dance challenge performed by members of An Garda Síochána in beautiful rural places all over Ireland. Within days, it was being played all over Europe.

A welcomed break

It started out in South Africa in 2019, written by a South African DJ and record producer known as Master KG. He invited the vocalist Nomcebo Zikode to come up with the lyrics. It has gone viral everywhere. It did two things for me; it made me smile and reminded me of our beautiful landscape. We will have fun and dance again and we will travel and seek out those spectacular places.

COVID-19 is destroying people’s lives and livelihoods but we must not let it take our spirits or our ability to endure

It also allowed me to think about the gardaí. It highlighted their togetherness as a force to get something like this done and showed us that they are normal people too who want to dance and encourage people to be happy.

Right now they are charged with curtailing our lives, stopping us travelling abroad, turning cars around and making sure that we are not breaching the 5km limit. COVID-19 is destroying people’s lives and livelihoods but we must not let it take our spirits or our ability to endure.

Dance therapy

I really liked the melody of Jerusalema. One morning in the kitchen last week; I asked Alexa to play Jerusalema. What happened was magical. Ricky, only one-year-old, took off in perfect step; shaking his head and waving his hands. He danced forward, turned and danced back towards us. Up and down the kitchen, he continued. I followed him, which delighted him and we laughed heartily. My daughter Julie videoed him and put it on WhatsApp for the wider family. It generated loads of smiles.

Others are forced to stay at home and long to be elsewhere

The music is definitely inspirational. The song is sung in isiZulu, a South African minority dialect. According to Google; it translates as: “Jerusalem is my home, Keep me, Go with me, Don’t leave me here, My kingdom is not here, Rescue me, I’m not perfect!”

The sentiments are apt for all the people that are displaced by COVID-19 restrictions and long to be at home. Others are forced to stay at home and long to be elsewhere. Credit Union staff, retail staff, nursing home staff, pharmacy staff and families are all dancing it.

By the end of this lockdown which is particularly difficult right now, we will have strengthened our mental resolve to endure difficult times. We can help ourselves by allowing our minds to embrace and enjoy simple pleasures.

St Valentine’s Day came and went. We celebrated by cooking a special dinner at home

Ricky looked up at Alexa on the worktop this morning, raised his hand to point and said: “Dat.” His one word for everything, and we were off dancing around the kitchen. It only takes a few minutes. My husband Tim announces to our son Diarmuid that I’ve gone crazy. Still, I know that in spite of themselves they are inwardly smiling!

St Valentine’s Day came and went. We celebrated by cooking a special dinner at home. We continue to be the same group of Julie, her husband David, Ricky, Tim, Katherine and Diarmuid. We planned our feast to suit all tastes. We had a pleasant evening.

We acknowledged that we’d love to be able to go to a restaurant separately! We vowed to do it next year. They’ll go one night. We’ll go another. That kind of a plan illustrated how curtailed our lives have become. We are getting tired of everything being the same. We tend to cook the same dinners. We’re having the same conversations and we acknowledge that we’re getting bored of our own company. So it is really important to find other things that will make us smile until that magic vaccination call comes.