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I'm not sitting here in my house carving off the days on the wall or anything, but every so often I find myself wondering "how many days is it since X?" and so I work it out. This happened yesterday - I wondered how many days it was since I'd last touched someone, so I counted -
and it turns out that today is 75 days since I last touched another human being. That's not the same number as lockdown itself, it just happens that for me, that's how long it is. For others it will be much higher, and of course we don't know how long it will yet be. 75 days.
Goodness me. Whether you're an extrovert or an introvert, a hugger or not, that can't be good for a person, can it?! What do I miss? I miss hugs, obviously. I miss hugging my Godchildren and their siblings in particular. I miss hugging the gorgeous kids at church.
But I miss other things too. I miss a hand on the arm mid-conversation to emphasise a point. I miss a playful punch when telling a joke. I miss an encouraging hand squeeze. I miss a hand on the back as you turn to say goodbye. I miss prayer ministry laying on of hands.
I miss massages. I miss just being physically close to other people. In normal life, there's quite a lot of touch. It reminds us we're alive, it brings warmth and comfort and solidarity and hope. We'll be able to touch again, one day, I know -
and hopefully appreciate it all the more. Till then, I'm grateful for this beautiful @charliemackesy drawing.
