We are well into week three of lockdown. Life has taken on its own rhythm and what was so important a month or so ago seems far less so in this strange new life.
If you had asked me a few weeks ago, how possible it would be limit purchases to groceries only for a period of at least a month, I would have said that would be impossible. But here we are, three weeks in and the only items we have bought have been from the supermarket. And most strangely, I am not missing shopping for non-essential items one little bit!
The savings made as a consequence of this period of quarantine has been an unexpected boon. But the biggest positive has been the sense of community that we seem to have achieved almost overnight.
We are all in this together, is the underlying narrative for sure, but the humour, the kindness, the friendliness from anyone encountered on the daily walk around the neighbourhood has been so heart-warming. Faith in human nature has been well and truly restored.
Whilst we are feeling that much closer to people who are essentially strangers to us, it is important that we carry this sense of good will to others in our own space as well.
I am lucky that I am sharing this period of lockdown with only one other, my husband.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I was concerned that the enforced closeness had the potential for things to become occasionally tense between us, but I am happy to report that this hasn’t been the case at all.
I am not blind to the fact that we don’t always present ourselves in our own environment as we do when we are outside of the home. Sometimes we leave our best person at work. I find that if I pause before I respond to my nearest and dearest with the internal check of ‘would I respond like this to a colleague’, my responses are often tempered with greater kindness and respect than they would have been if left unchecked.
So I have been focusing on my communications with family over this time including a bigger dose of kindness than I might ordinarily do.
Everyone is coping in their own individual way, and whoever really knows how stressed and anxious others may be feeling? A extra sprinkling of kindness is the very least we can offer.
It is important that this kindness is also extended to ourselves. Every day is the same at the moment, this is true, but how we feel as we approach it may be different each day.
If my inner domestic goddess wants to cook up a storm and clean out every closet on one day, then I indulge her, but if the next day it is difficult dragging myself from the comfort of the couch, then this is absolutely ok. We must treat ourselves with the same degree of consideration that we give to others. This is so important.
We all need hugs and kindness as we go through these strange days, and there are no limits on how much of this we can bring into our homes and lives. Kindness really is an essential service.
Quietly Quaintrelle 