LONDON, U.K. -- Let us begin this day with some wisdom from two Winnies. One was a bear, and the other a prime minister. Some might say there was a resemblance.

“There is something you must always remember,” advised Winnie the Pooh. “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

There is a message of solace in those words -- from a little make-believe bear to the grieving people of Nova Scotia. To everyone who is struggling to survive in this pandemic. I guess that includes all of us.

The other Winnie spoke to his people during their darkest hour, with the very existence of his nation under threat.

“Good night, then,” bid Winston Churchill, at the end of one of his famous radio broadcasts. It was 1941, and London was under airborne siege.

“Sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come.”

It was meant to be heartening, not foreboding.

Nearly eight decades later, the morning has arrived -- as Churchill assured us it would -- on this, the 29th day inside our enforced bubble of solitude.

I drink a lot of coffee. I spend a lot of time reading everything I can about COVID-19 and how it kills you. I read about possible treatments, about trials for a vaccine, with the words “hurry up” pushing silently through my lips.

I passed a jogger in the park today huffing and puffing and sweating and looking sickly and I felt sure he was infected -- it’s far more likely he was just out of shape.

That wasn’t just fear, it was suspicion.

So, on another sombre day, indulge me as I turn back to Winnie the Prime Minister for a last word of inspiration, as perhaps no other leader in the last century had the ability to inspire.

It is not unfair to wonder how Churchill would have roused his nation facing such a deadly war. He knew what worked and he never used fear to rally courage. He used determination.

We walk in the park every morning, which is still allowed. We close ourselves off for the rest of the day, which is our greatest form of self-protection. As if, when you close the door behind you, the virus can’t come in.

Some people wear blue opaque masks. Some people wear scarves and bandanas over their faces. And we don’t even know if that works. Our smart phones can tell us how many steps we’ve taken, but they can’t protect us.

What a medieval view of our modern world.

To Churchill then, who survived the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, and led his country to a great Allied victory exactly 75 years ago this May.

“Thus will shine the dawn.”