No parties.

No sports fixtures.

No theatre.

No live music.

No pubs, clubs, restaurants, coffee shops.  No browsing in TKMaxx or M&S.

There are odd scarcities in the shops.  I mean, who is really doing all this bread baking anyway?!!

And you are cramped, locked up with your family whom you love (normally!).  Or you’re by yourself trying not to despair or go mad.

Lockdown steals our freedoms, in return for a reduction in the likelihood of catching a deadly disease, a cruel disease that kills its victims by using their own autoimmune system to suffocate them.

One way of surviving the lack of freedom is by finding what good you can in the situation:  the quieter than usual traffic noise, meaning you can hear the birdsong better, or taking joy from stories like that of Captain Tom Moore (£28m and counting!), or from all those rainbows in windows.

If you can, try to find 10 minutes a day to sit quietly and either think mindfully, or of your God if you have one, or just dream of what you want to do when this is over and plan how you will make it happen.

Because joyful dreaming is a kind of meditation, a good relaxation, and one of the best freedoms available to anyone.

Stay home, stay strong, stay safe everyone.