Poet and author Michael Rosen spent weeks in hospital on a ventilator, in an induced coma; he nearly died from Covid. Eventually, recovering at home he wrote:
I am not who I was.
I am who I was.
This is not me.
This is me.
I am now the person
who had Covid:
the thing that came in March
I am now the person
who disappeared
in April and May…
He was the same Michael Rosen – he knew the person he was; however his experience of Covid and near-death had changed him. He was a different Michael Rosen.
Musing… recent conversations… friends who’ve been through life changing experiences:
- Bereavement… death of a parent, husband, wife, child… coming to terms with, living through, moving on…
- Divorce… new relationships with children, ex-husband/wife… new freedoms, new restrictions…
- Moving… to university, a new home… away from established friendships, the known to the unknown…
- Illness… life-threatening or life-restricting… totally changing life style or life expectations…
- Finance… losing or receiving a large amount of money… changing future options
- Addiction… food, drugs, sex… recovering, adapting, moving on…
They remain the same, their families, their character and personality, strengths and weaknesses, experiences of life… Radical change to their situation means that they change… re-directing their lives, re-discovering themselves, re-inventing themselves… different ‘seasons’ of life…
Musing… my own life… 25 years ago I was producing and directing a musical I had co-written… 15 years ago I was a headteacher leading a school… 10 years ago I was a church leader in a church without a minister…
Today I’m a very different man. I look back at the man I was. Sometimes I don’t recognise him. Like Michael Rosen ‘I am not who I was. I am who I was.’
Musing… St Paul… expresses his faith and hope in an uncertain, changing present and future: ‘We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.’
malcolmsmusings.org 