'It may not seem like it, but the pandemic will end,' says rector of All Saints Church in Northampton

Let me begin this with another timely reminder that this pandemic will end.

I know it doesn’t seem like it, and that the graphs and news reports lately have started to look an awful lot like they did back in March or April... but this is going to stop.

I know it’s tempting to lay the blame for the way we’re living on the testing, or young people, or old people (or, if you live in Wales, a coach load of middle-aged people) as if there’s a perfectly rational narrative of incompetence or inattention to the rules that has put communities back into lockdown.

As a compiler of risk assessments and policies for my own organisation, I know I bear some responsibility for that too. Like schools, and a huge number of other employers, we all expect people who get a fever, a cough, or experience anosmia to stay home until they’ve tested negative.

Some only expect you to self-isolate if you actually test positive.

Both carry weighty consequences for employees who don’t follow those rules. But one day, we’ll be able to get a cold again and not worry that our whole life is going on pause. We are where we are, but thanks to what looks like effective measures in Northampton of late, and because it’s September, it really is time to start planning for the future.

The last six months have been emotional, traumatic and hard, and it feels like we’re embarking on the season of Remembrance without having properly drawn a line under the first wave.

We have a need to remember so much, whether they be the departed loved ones who succumbed to (or during) this terrible virus, or the armies of heroes and helpers who deserve immense gratitude and celebration.

We have people who are still sick, many months after first falling ill, and people who are preparing for what might be coming.

When it was time to break our lockdown and take some of the summer in, it felt – and perhaps this is just me – a little furtive and isolating, as if at any moment our liberty might shift back into restriction.

Last week we marked the anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and in the coming weeks the autumn brings us St Crispin’s Day (Northamptonshire’s Patron Saint) and All Saints’ Day, before turning to the solemnity of Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.

Thereafter we’ll be having to get to work on how Christmas is going to look this year, with the nagging fear that it ain’t going to feel right if it ain’t done right.

But it is also true that if you’re convinced that nothing will carry you through what you’re about to go through (whatever that turns out to be), then count on it being difficult.

The happy reality is that we have learnt how to do normal, life-giving things in radically different ways that either give a little safety and security, or which can address us even if the sofa is as far as we’re going today.

When so much is different and doesn’t quite seem right, or when so much else is still being cancelled, it can feel like time is standing still.

Without the passing of things we’re not sure what is behind us. Even the fact that today is Thursday can be a revelation.

Allowing ourselves, however, some things to look forward to, work towards, even hope for, is to find parts in our lives that can propel us forward.

With all the hard work left to do, let’s just know that it won’t always be like this.