‘I’m an estimator in a ceramic tiling firm. I’ve been a tiler for years. It’s all pretty new, working from my kitchen table. The first week was great. The rest hasn’t been. It’s our firm’s twentieth anniversary this year. We were planning to run the Southampton marathon. But that’s off. So, now we’re running 2020km in 20 days. We are on about day eight. The legs are alright.

‘When I run, it’s meditative time. The running creates time for me to think. There are no distractions. In that time all kinds of things come up: my worries, general things. One of my daughters lives on her own in a flat. She hasn’t got a garden. That’s been really difficult. Our parents are old. It’s hard to know how to help.

‘But really good stuff is happening. I’ve never talked to my kids or my mum and dad more than I am doing now. My worry is that it’ll all go back to normal as soon as the shops are open. But you realise how little you need, as long as you have family, friends and food.

‘There’s a verse in the book of Revelation that talks about the tree of life and its leaves being for the healing of the nations. That phrase has always caught me. Now, I think about that as I run. There are stories of gang violence stopping in the pandemic, of people coming together to help their communities. Can that carry on after this? That verse gives me hope. You get lost in the news and you can’t see hope. But it’s there.’

Do you have a story to share? Email mybible@biblesociety.org.uk

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