Never have I been so focused on borders as I have during 2020 and now again in 2021.

Covid-19 and a broken ankle reduced the size of my world. In my  smaller world I’m rebelling by not completing the borders on this jigsaw. I’m defiantly leaving them undone and mostly open!  Though I have closed some!

The jigsaw was a gift for my 60th Birthday, made up of photos of my family. It’s kind of weird picking up a piece of your face and struggling to know where it goes!  But weird fits these times. I had no desire to finish the border as I now have a love/hate relationship with them.

We were overjoyed to be able to spend Christmas at home in Queensland with our daughter and her partner from Melbourne, but I kept a watchful eye on the border news. I was fearful they would have to rapidly return to Victoria when Covid-19 raised its ugly head there again after 60 days of being virus free. I was saddened by friends who did not get time with family when our borders were closed to parts of NSW after an outbreak just before Christmas.

Like many of us, I can’t cross international borders and visit family and friends overseas. I find it difficult to see when overseas travel in and out of Australia will be easy.

I’ve travelled extensively, and had some stressful border experiences, but I’ve never been so acutely aware of how borders can shut you in and keep you out. It’s disgusting that Australia still has a Tamil family of four, with two children aged 5 and 3 living in isolation on Christmas Island. They just spent their second Christmas there. In Brisbane there are dozens of men in visa limbo, detained in isolation for years. Surely, now we have all had a tiny taste of the deprivation that accompanies isolation, Australia can act more kindly.

So happy new year to you all.  May you, your family and your friends, be as safe, well and connected as you can be during 2021.