The latest step in the releasing of Belgium from rules designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 began on June 8th. This meant that bars, cafes and restaurants could re-open. For those spiritually inclined, it also meant that religious services could re-open to the faithful as long as the number of people inside buildings was limited.

In the time before COVID-19 forced us into what in the French-speaking world is called “confinement”, we attended mass regularly at a Jesuit church in Brussels. Normally, it would take us about ten minutes to walk to the metro, another ten minutes in the train, and then another five minutes to the church by foot. All in all, it’s about a 25-minute time commitment to get there.

The church has re-opened public masses and in fact has added two additional masses to allow the faithful a chance to worship without congregating too closely so as to reduce the risk of spreading the disease.

The first Sunday in this new regime is today, June 14^th. We didn’t go and I suspect, we, perhaps like many other people across the world will need to unlearn what we have learned to do in confinement if we want, to borrow the title of an excellent book by Stefan Zweig which I’m reading now, “the world of yesterday” to return.

We have learned after three months of lockdown that we can actually enjoy ourselves quite well within our own four walls.

We’ve learned from Netflix that we love the writing in “Arrested Development”, found “The Kandinsky Method” to be both witty and poignant, and also determined that “Ozark” is just too intense for us. “The Last Dance” is also a powerful tonic for a sports fan longing for live action and also, as a Jo Ellison in the  FT pointed out recently, a primer on leadership.

We’ve learned that we can generally do the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle in about 90-minutes.

We’ve experimented with recipes and seen first-hand that it is indeed healthier both for our bodies and our budgets if we eat out less. We did, however, enjoy our first restaurant meal in three months at our favorite pub, which is within walking distance of our house.

Still, for us to leave our homes and go to the office, go to mass or go to a museum now requires wearing a mask on the metro, an act that while medically necessary is very hard to get used to. At the risk of possibly misappropriating economics terms, the marginal cost of leaving the house is higher than previously was the case and the opportunity costs are clearer too. If we’re in the metro, then we can’t do a puzzle, watch a film or read as easily and as comfortably as we can at home.

In other words, for life to return to normal, we will have to “unlock” our selves, or unlearn the habits that we learned in confinement. That process will take time and might never be fully completed.

Todd is on Twitter