May 2020
We've had four more weeks of Lockdown since I last wrote anything.
A month of uncertainty, of change, of staying at home (in the main).
A sad month of hearing about others’ heartache at the loss of loved ones. Then the daily figures of hospital deaths included a friend - which made it all the more real.
A month of knowing how much some are struggling with day to day life, yet not being able to help.
A month of missing seeing family, hugs from the grandchildren, meeting up with friends. WhatsApp video and Zoom have become the normal way of communicating - for now. Even for a 90 year old grandmother’s birthday.
So what are the good things, the positive things, the things to be grateful for?
Beautiful weather, daily exercise, peaceful walks around the area, noticing new things, finding new footpaths, streams and ponds, and of course the river.
Taking a break from normal life, slowing down, doing things differently.
Time to do long awaited projects… like refurbish the 112 year old chaise longue and remake the dolls bed, originally made by my parents nearly 60 years ago!
Time to contribute and make masks and scrubs bags for nurses
A quiet village - no cars, no motorway traffic noise in the background- just stillness and the sound of birds singing and the greetings of other people out for a walk, families exercising together.
Clapping for keyworkers on Thursday evenings and neighbours celebrating VE Day together (see the VE Day celebrations page) and really talking to each other. Is this how it once was many years ago?
Birds making nests and feeding their young, seedlings growing in the greenhouse and seeing daffodils and primroses, replaced with tulips, then azaleas and bluebells, foxgloves and now even some roses. The seasons are still moving on.
So what will remain when this is all over?
Will we return to the old patterns of the old way of life or stay in the new grooves currently being carved?
Should we re-evaluate, keep the new good things and discard the unhelpful, the unneeded, the unwanted? What’s still to learn in days to come?
What will last for eternity if a life is suddenly cut short?
What are our lives actually built on?
Careers, finances, good health, can all diminish or even disappear so quickly. These are good things so many of us enjoy but when they are suddenly taken from us, what happens then?
The wise and the foolish men
When thinking about this I was reminded of a Bible story that many will have heard as children…
‘There was once a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew but the house stood firm, because it had its foundation on the rock. There was also a foolish man who built his house on the sand and when the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, it fell with a great crash because its foundations were on soft ground.’
Every ‘Life’ needs to have a firm foundation so that it won’t be shaken or even collapse when storms come.
In the Bible it says...
‘He (God) will be the sure foundation for your times' (Isaiah ch 33 v 6)
