Losing a dear loved one during the pandemic and not being able to hold his hand as he passed away was inconceivable, unbelievable, yet our reality. Being in isolation through contact with the virus meant being cut off from family, a lonely, sad and scary place. Time stood still. Walking in faith became a focus. Looking at the sun in the sky, the beauty of creation, in quietness and solitude. So much of the pandemic centred around hands: the constant washing for fear of transmission; the nurses who held the hands of our loved one when we couldn’t; the community clapping to show its gratitude to the NHS, care staff and key workers. These hands are holding a labyrinth, an ancient symbol of wholeness, often used for meditation: a circle and spiral combined to represent a journey or path to our own centre and back again out into the world. These hands and labyrinth represent for me the feeling of being alone but held. We were all alone but we were also together with the whole of humanity. We all suffered and we all rejoiced as we met people we had never known in a shared sense of love and care.