Lonely Planet
The evolution of beach life in the time of Covid-19
Photo by Stefano Morelli
For over a year now, many people have been experiencing a sensation something like finding oneself on a boat adrift on stormy seas.
Physical distancing became social distancing, then also mental. Anxiety, irritability, apathy, fatigue, insomnia are just some of the symptoms of what has been termed “lockdown stress”. A study by the University of Michigan claims that the best way to overcome this is by spending time in nature.
In fact, it is precisely nature that many have sought, perhaps unconsciously: woods, mountains and, above all, the sea.
Thanks to our forced isolation we have rediscovered the forgotten value of connecting with nature’s primary elements: the wind, the sun, the silence and the rhythmic lapping of the waves on the shore. And the feel of sand passing though our fingers, like an hourglass marking the passing of the weeks or months that lie ahead before we can return to what now seems like a bygone normality.
(2020)
