Our community has now endured two years of turmoil that started with the Black Summer bushfires and has been a relentless and unforgiving ride through floods and now a worldwide health pandemic.

Through it all, resilience became our favourite word, but even that has its limits. We're all tired.

Before we 'open up', shake our foggy brains and emerge squinting into the light again, stop for a moment to take stock of the hard yards almost all of us have done to get here.

You should be proud of that. But the work doesn't stop here.

It has taken some grit, some self-reflection, some sacrifice. We've had some little wins along the way, many of us have experienced loss. To get here we've had to consider each other, walk the talk and not just exercise the privilege that usually gets the advantaged through life.

The nation's hard work to follow health advice, roll up our sleeves and do those hard yards will hopefully protect the vulnerable and disadvantaged from an enemy many of us never thought in our lifetime we'd experience.

Our hard work will hopefully keep our hospitals free and our frontline adequately resourced.

It will keep our hard working businesses open, our kids in school and our families connected.

This human experience we've all shared will hopefully mean the way forward will come with a more open mind and the realisation we don't just exist in isolation on this planet.

If we can't do the small things for the greater good, then we've learned nothing from this.

There is always opportunity amid adversity. Who will be living life differently as a result of their COVID experience? What are you letting go of, changing? What have you learned?