It has been almost a year since my first post on COVID-19. And I am starting to suffer from a mild form of the Corona Blues:

The condition of depression and hopelessness caused by COVID-19 measures.

Initially I thought it would be over soon. Even later, I could see light at the end of the tunnel. But it is getting harder and harder to have faith that the current measures will get us out of this mess.

Here in the Netherlands we are in our strictest lockdown since the start of this pandemic:

• only one visitor a day, which means that my mother cannot come and visit, because at her age she needs someone to accompany her
• work at home as much as possible, which means some workers have not met their colleagues in person for almost a year
• schools are closed, which means our children in college have been studying almost exclusively at home for almost a year now. They struggle (and by now start to fail) to keep up the motivation and self discipline.
• no sports, theater, hair dressers, traveling, shopping, museums, restaurants, etc., which means it feels like life is reduced to sleep, eat, work, repeat.
• other illnesses (like cancer) get treated later and slower, and loved ones are severely limited in their ability to support patients
• curfew between 9 pm and 4.30 am, which is mostly a psychological burden

I actually am proud of our household: so far, we have managed to keep our spirits up and avoided serious conflicts. To be honest, others are (far) worse off than I am:

• I already worked mostly from home
• our children are at an age that they take care of themselves
• our income has not suffered