When I feel all the emotions I write things… I wrote this today and posted it for you whenever your find it and wherever you are. It’s written to capture hope and as a cathartic exercise for me too.
We made friends with these times…
Like all the clocks stopped at once somehow, but they didn’t.
Like anxiety became our preferred state of mind, but it wasn’t.
Like we all fell out with each other, but we didn’t. It’s the same.
Like we completely ran out of water and food, but we didn’t. It’s the same.
Quiet city streets like it would be at dawn, phones off, it’s the same.
As the kettle boils, I play out a conversation with my Gramps who has been gone six months now. I asked him; “what you having for tea?”. He answers of course… a complicated but reassuring answer. I felt calm inside. It’s the same.
Monday;
The first day after the very first day of Spring, our neighbour’s son mows lawns – front and back. Cut grass smells fills our house as they have four years gone. It’s the same.
Tuesday;
The sun burns brighter, we spill out to walk, my eyes blink tears away, the moon comes out each night with her reassuring spot light. Watching us… it’s the same.
Wednesday;
A sabbatical from globalisation! A long rest for some, from a lifetime of working too hard for people who didn’t know how to practise gratitude but now do.
Where front line and key workers dance with life each day. We breathe… I’m relieved I chose this path, it’s the same!
The birds sing out for Spring and we follow suit to stay sane…
Thursday;
We look to our wisdom keepers but they bought everything in panic. Now it’s there for us to see on the empty shelves. Ego, the deconstruction of trust and hope all at once. But in the eyes of the strangers I see clearly, we’re the same.
Friday;
We look to our children, they can see us sad but we keep ourselves busy so they don’t and they tell us – “such a sunny day” it really is… it’s the same.
…And we run out of days to count… and so after a while, we are totally out of distractions. Damn!
The cupboards are tidy, the bills in order and complaints and fear exhausted, almost bored we look inside…
We see that after the sickness passes and the daily lucid dream becomes a distant nightmare, we are suddenly wise…
Wrung out in sadness and we are hopeful.
Confused with sore hands, we are hopeful.
Empowered and creative, it’s really all about right now… it always was.
We will become friends with these times. We will sit in the dark with our fears, we will watch our children with hearts so whole and full of love. We will become teams of two and one, watch buds grow into flowers, we’ll sleep well.
We’ll reframe everything in our minds.
We’ll wake up rested and awakened to why and what we can do to nourish ourselves, the earth and our communities, we will be forever grateful for the days that passed in education of our once frozen hearts.
We’ll be such good friends with these times.
***
Life will never be the same, but it’s how we chose to live it and make friends with ourselves capturing hope along the way that will matter. Let’s get our pals on zoom, connect with play, wellbeing and creativity and what will be an almighty storm in human consciousness.
We can do hard things (*) … if we do them together.
Claire x
(*) “We can do hard things” is a phrase by author Glennon Doyle