We are living in unprecedented times! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I couldn’t get into my car and drive to the shops! I have my nails done every two weeks. I get my hair coloured and trimmed every six weeks. I visit the dentist every six months. I have a standard chiropodist appointment every two months.
Not anymore, or, at least, for the foreseeable future!
Life as we know it has changed dramatically.
No more hugging or kissing to greet family and friends. We can’t even visit family or friends even if we wanted to hug or kiss them! We are fast becoming a virtual society, something we have been actively fighting against. We have been trying to re-educate the younger generation to leave their mobile phones at home and get back to real, one to one, communication! Now we are asking for their help to stay in touch with our loved ones caught up in this Coronavirus pandemic!
But all is not doom and gloom. I’m looking outside my bedroom window. The sky is blue, a few hazy clouds waft slowly past. I heard the dawn chorus when I awoke earlier. Even though we feel that our world has been turned upside down, spring has arrived! Devoid of air traffic, fewer cars on the road and our busy, frenetic lives put on hold, can I be so bold as to suggest we take time to enjoy the warmer, longer days? If we look around, daffodils, crocuses, blossoms on trees and in hedgerows are all flowering in gay abandon. We have time to stop and ‘smell the roses’. We might be surprised at how good this newly enforced ‘freedom’ feels.
I am aware that not everyone has a garden but we are allowed out once a day to exercise. I do also realise that there are those being asked to self isolate for twelve weeks. My heart goes out to you but I am very hopeful that everyone will take this lockdown seriously so that you can come out of isolation as soon as possible. I also hope that you will get all the support you need to see you through these harrowing times. Where I can help I certainly will!
I’m jumping right out of my box when I say that I am taking one day at a time! I am only looking at the current day and trying to get some structure by planning a few activities, just for that day. I include boring things like housework but, if I take these chores in small bite sizes, they don’t seem so bad. On Tuesday I vacuumed, yesterday I dusted upstairs, today will be downstairs. That’s an hour a day accounted for. Tomorrow will be the bathrooms.
I don’t usually watch television during the day. Because we are not living ‘normal’ lives I can throw my rule book out the window and make a new one. Or, heaven forbid, not have any rules at all! I check the television guide and, if a good film or programme is showing, I watch, regardless of the time!
My husband and I do need to exercise as the gym has shut. Because the weather has been so good we have managed to have a long walk every day. Taking each day as it comes I have been able to factor these walks into my current daily schedule. I might not always have this luxury. Tomorrow might be wet and cold!
But I am trying to remain positive. The good weather helps. If our NHS staff and all the other critical workers in this country and around the world can risk their lives and those of their loved ones to go to work, I can stay at home! This way I am doing my bit to prevent the spread of this disease. And so, I hope, say all of us 👠
Jenny Burrell 