Iconic buildings in the Parliamentary Triangle were lit up over the weekend as part of the city's signature autumn festival - a yearly event that feels extra special, and poignant this time around.

Last year's Enlighten was one of the last events to go ahead before the city, along with the rest of the country and much of the world, locked down to see out the global pandemic.

From then on, almost every public event, large or small, was steadily cancelled, and by the end of March, there was little anyone could do except bunker down and wait.

Funerals, weddings and family gatherings were out, along with dining out, indoor exercise and, for a disorienting period, school.

And as the months have dragged on, overseas travel has been off the cards and the yearly events calendar for all sporting and entertainment events is still studded with uncertainty.

It had been hard, until this weekend, to find much to look forward to.

But seeing Vincent Van Gogh's luminous Sunflowers being hung carefully on the wall of the National Gallery of Australia last week felt like a portent of hope.

The gallery's summer blockbuster, Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London, was postponed last year, as the works, stopping in Japan on the first leg of the show to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics (also postponed), were stranded indefinitely.

And when the gallery announced the show would go on, but in autumn instead of summer, it seemed overly optimistic.

But the timing, as it turns out, has been spot on; the show will open as the country emerges, blinking, into the nearly-post-COVID light.

The paintings have come a long way, both physically and metaphorically, from crates and darkness, to a dawning light.

It's as life-affirming as the lit-up buildings, full stadiums, and bar patrons drinking while standing up.

If there's anything the pandemic has taught us, it's to enjoy the little things.

And it is a changed world.

COVID-19 has altered the way we go about lives, and many of these changes will prove permanent.

The gallery uncrated and hung the priceless paintings with London curators looking on via webcam - an entirely practical but far-from-ideal situation that could become the norm for years to come.

Above all, it has taught us that complacency is the enemy, and will be for some time yet.

The Australian Open, when it kicked off in Melbourne three weeks ago, had a similar sense of optimism around it, as the country geared up to show the rest of the world how it's done when it comes to managing the virus.

As it turned out, an entire week of the tournament was dampened as the city went into lockdown in response to a handful of cases in hotel quarantine.

The players did their thing in an empty stadium, showing the world, indeed, how it's done in a post-COVID world.

But as the rate of cases and deaths around the world looks to be dropping, possibly as the result of massive vaccine rollouts, we're right to feel optimistic.

Life will never return to normal, but to an ever-evolving "new normal".

In the meantime, we're right to enjoy the company of others, be they fellow bar patrons, art-lovers, thrill-seekers or sports fans.

We've all earned it.