The past 18 months have been really hard for all of us, some harder than others. I think that we all have struggled at some point; some have lost loved ones, businesses have closed, people have lost their jobs, lockdowns and we are living amidst the chaos of changing times around the world. A lot of us have become fearful about the changing world and how we may have to live in the future.

It has been a while since I have written a blog and that is for a number of reasons. First as most of you would know I was at the Tokyo Paralympic Games competing in the road cycling and I felt like I needed to concentrate on just what I was doing in the moment. Second, on September 2nd during my road race I was unfortunately involved in a crash only about 6 minutes into the race.

None of us likes to be wrong or make mistakes! I know that I hate it, but why do we feel like it is the worst thing? Being wrong or making a mistake can leave us feeling unworthy or less valuable. We think people are always watching and seeing our mistakes. But sometimes we are the only one that really notices our mistakes because the rest of the world is more worried about themselves.

The one thing that I have been learning from my daily meditation is to live in the moment and within that moment to accept whatever is happening be it good or bad. If we are trying to change things then we aren’t accepting what is in this exact moment. We have to be open to each new moment without expectation. Let go of the past as each new moment emerges.

For years scientists have spent their entire careers studying and trying to understand how viruses work. They are the ultimate nanomachines that build themselves from smaller components. As Helena Maier, an expert in coronavirus replication at the Pirbright Institute says, “Viruses are incredibly simple yet incredibly complicated. “

As I am writing this blog I am sitting looking out at Batemans Bay in New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. Yes I have escaped the confines of Melbourne. Who would have thought that I would be talking about escaping exactly a year ago when we first went into lockdown! This pandemic has changed the whole world.