COVID-19: A twist of hope

Empty a word that has suddenly become synonymous to our world.

Today the busiest streets I know of in the world are empty, the biggest arenas that have seen the largest gathering of fans are empty, our churches where we love to gather and say our heartfelt prayers are empty, our usual 9-5 busy lifestyle is on halt because our most productive and busy offices are empty.

Walking down the streets of Accra feels like I am in a land that have been abandoned by its ancestors for decades now with no human presence and activity.

Indeed our world is not as it used to be, the very core of our lives have been touched by an enemy that threatens the very existence of the human race.

Our lives are on the line as we do everything in our power to stay alive, even in our bid to survive we find our hospitals and morgues continuously been filled with our loved ones. May our lost souls rest in peace. Amen!

We look forward to the day our hospital beds and morgues will be empty and await the return of our loved ones back home with smiles, we hold on to the hope of recovery and we hold on to a world united in fight against a COVID-19.

Things have changed as we have taken up new identities and culture in our bid to stay alive for as long as we can, our smiles have been taken away from us, today we wear face masks to hide our infectious smiles to avoid catching a virus, we keep our hugs to ourselves because they are no longer a safe place for our loved ones, our sense of belongingness is no more as we have to keep social distances from each other so we don't catch a virus, our love for trade is threatened as we have to keep our borders closed so we don't import a virus, we would rather stay hungry than trade for a virus.

The sound and feeling of this is scary and leaves worry in our hearts as we look forward to the day we will return to normal or maybe a new normal will emerge.

The empty streets, malls and supermarkets, sports arenas, churches, bus stations have filled our home with love. Our homes remain the only place that is not empty with everyone locked up behind their own doors, we remain united indoors. Before we can fight this pandemic we must first be united as a people and I believe unity begins from our homes.

The pandemic has united the world in a way that we would have never imagined, today busy parents will have the time to show care and love to their children, husbands can show their wives some more love and wives can appreciate their husband even more. Today children can pick up their phone and call their parents and tell them how much they love them, today we can make time to fix our broken relationships and build healthy ones.

We have learnt a hard lesson, we have realised that all we really need in life is love. It is the one thing that the world has always kept us away from; even from the people we love the most. But yet still we yearn so much to step out of our homes and "live our lives" forgetting that all the life we have is in our homes.

This pandemic is uniting the world in a very unusual way and if we pay attention to it and begin to show more love to the people closest to us then we are gradually winning the fight against this pandemic.

We need our world back, but we must return to it as better people than we were when we left it. This is the time to show that we are made of love and that we are stronger together even in our homes. We have always risen above any challenge and we will survive this one too.

I stare through my little window and feeling the warm of the early morning sunrise on my skin, straining my ears to the silence on the street; I can hear the silent voices of the world praying together for victory, we will not lose hope. We are the human race and we will race with love to victory.

Stay safe, spread love, join the race to victory and Share this peice of hope with the world.