Darkest Before the Dawn

I get up around four am.  It sounds impressive but I also go to bed fairly early mostly.  I won’t be drawn on what one fella said to me.  He is a guitarist and I said the jam we were having for my birthday could go most the night.  He suggested because I am getting older that could mean like 8:15.   They reckon one hour before midnight is worth two after it.  No wonder I tend to be wide awake at get up time.
I have noticed a change.  In the middle of summer, the sun got up around 4.30am.  That meant it started to be light around 4.00 am.  It is not that it is completely dark and then it is light when the sun rises.  It is gradual.  These days the sun gets up just after 6am.  It starts to get light around 5.30am.
No matter when it is light, there is one thing that remains constant.  It really is darkest before dawn.  Right now around Easter time, it is a full moon, so it is fairly light at night.  But no matter how light it is, just before dawn, it is really dark.
That is the way I see this Covid19 thing.  It really would not surprise me if this darkness was the first of many shocks (the bush fires were terrible, but to me they were like a practice run.)
It no doubt has been dark before (like the Spanish flu).  Not surprising really as day tends to follow day, so it is dark more than once.  The thing for me is never have we been so connected.  It was not that long ago I would have had no idea what was happening in China or Europe or the US.  Now I can know pretty well instantly.  Social media has meant something can happen in South America, and I can see a video of it within seconds of the event.
I love a song by an English singer/songwriter called Chris Rice called “Deep Enough To Dream.” He talks about dreaming “in brilliant colours I has never seen.”  There is an image in that I relate to what is going on.  He talks about waking up on the porch and seeing a fly “bump his head for the hundredth time” on the screen as he is trying to get out to “Freedom calls from the other side…”
There’s heaps happening.  I would like to escape it, but there is a screen in my way.  I am not a fly though.  I do think I have an advantage over him.  I can see what is going on.  That freedom that calls from the other side is known to me, and I feel it is just a matter of time.