Week 6 or is it week 7? I’ve rather lost track, and that’s in part because, remarkably, my colleagues in the Connexional Safeguarding Team and I, have been kept really busy over the last few weeks. To some extent unexpectedly so, but of course it’s also enabled us to catch up on recording and plan for our post-lockdown world whatever that might look like. Compared to those on furlough we have perhaps been ‘fortunate’ – is that quite right? – to have this level of work which keeps us occupied.
But a strange thought occurred to me yesterday. I suppose when the lockdown started twelve weeks was the mooted length and now here we are just over half way through. At the start, as well as aiming to keep well, I had good intentions about gardening, reading, resuming the oil painting that I did in my youth, and learning to finger style properly when playing my guitar. Well the garden is tidier than usual but all other activities have not really taken off, well not at all, and now I am beginning to focus on the new stress of when and how to make a judgement about how to make best use of any easing of the lockdown. So my strange thought was about whether I would have achieved anything in the lockdown. I guess surviving is key and that’s pretty fundamental in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but curiously I shall feel annoyed with myself if I have let the moment pass. It’s nothing like it of course but it reminds me, as we approach VE day celebrations, of the questions we used to ask our fathers; ‘what did you do in the war, daddy?’ ‘How did you spend the lockdown of 2020?’
Whatever we have done or still plan to do there is a plethora of advice and guidance around, especially about keeping yourself safe online, tackling domestic abuse and keeping emotionally well. There is much in my inbox about this as well as about fraud, social distancing and looking after yourself. At times it can become overwhelming but the key here is to try as far as you can, to slow down a bit, take time out and look for those opportunities when some small unfulfilled dreams and aspirations can become a tangible reality.