Feest Isolation Days – 29 March 2020
Sunday! Definitely feels a different day to other days of the week. It always has and perhaps that’s why it always does.
The pandemic rolls on and the NHS prepares. The UK has had a few extra weeks, as we’re just behind Italy, Spain and France. Our friends who work in hospitals tell us that they are preparing for the storm that they know is about to hit. The effort is mammoth and has been well thought through. Rotas are built with teams of people with the expectation that up to twenty percent of staff might be off at any one time. Electricians are fitting sockets this weekend in large rooms normally reserved for meetings. These former meeting rooms will soon be full of beds, and in the not too distant future, patients. A ward of eight will become a ward of thirty. People are pulling out all the stops. We are all doing our bit by staying home. The numbers of anticipated deaths we’re hearing about can wear us down and the constant barrage of information we keep hearing about the corona virus can become overwhelming. Cruising the news channels and seeking the latest information can be depleting.
So too can our attempts to find our way through the maze of possibilities as we
try to find our lives again and live differently than we did a few short weeks
ago. Going online is both a joy and another source that can swamp us and divert
our attention. When did we move from the
awe and excitement of choice to becoming submerged by so many options? When we used to go to the library as kids
there were so many books to choose from, yet all that choice didn’t seem scary
– not to me at least! I couldn’t wait to get home and dive into the pile that
was always waiting (my flashlight was a staple feature of bedtime). When I’d
finished the heap of (mostly) novels and we were back in the library, the
excitement would begin again. Which books should I choose this time? I never felt overwhelmed by what I would
never manage to read, just sheer joy at discovering all the novels I was going
to get through. How do we hang onto that feeling of wonder and awe and excitement
and not let ourselves be overwhelmed by choice?
Do a quick search on the internet for almost anything and the morning can slip by as you devour yet
another article about how to …fill in your blanks. Many of us are still at
the stage where we tend to spend more time seeking than doing. What’s the
point? Somebody’s already …fill in the blanks. Perhaps it’s time to remember those things we
loved as kids and work towards them once again.
Our staying at home life is going to be the norm for several months. For
those of us fortunate enough not to be in one of those hospital beds, what will
we do? Will we fill our diaries with
virtual activities or find something once more that fills us with the awe and
childlike wonder that we once had? The choice is ours!
Doing the same thing again and expecting a different result is the definition of madness……
– I’m not sure the grandkids will get this one!
With love,
Kathy x