2020 is turning out a shocker for so many. There are a lot spinning in a panic that might be worse than the symptoms of the virus itself.
Hold tight guys! Hold it together. Stress is a tester. My best friend (who is a psychologist) always said to me that everyone has a breaking point and would succumb to prolonged stress in one way or another. But remember that the situation you are facing right now is one that we are facing. All of us are facing it. It will pass. It will. We are very well aware that some are going to fare worse than others. Many people are trying to pull together, to be extra helpful, extra kind, extra encouraging. That is lovely. (Try to put out of your mind the toilet paper hoarders and the panic buying.)
The world is finally stepping up and making some huge sacrifices – why? To save lives. For the first time since I can remember, it seems as if in a huge way it is being made clear that a lot of people do understand how precious human life is. Life is very very precious. Because of that we are all making sacrifices in different ways.
We are also all aware that for some the losses will be greater than for others. This is a situation that will leave us bruised. But we will heal. Think of all those who love what is good and kind and hold life as sacred. They are your family. We are your family. We know that many of our family are experiencing pain and loss and stress.
Whether you are Chinese, Italian, Iranian, Spanish, French, American or German….or any other nationality – you are our family and we are feeling for you as much as those on our doorstep. Oh my goodness…I wish I could run round giving everyone huge hugs. But that would not be a good idea right now in view of social distancing. When this is over – I will devote my life to going out and meeting every member of the human family and hugs – lots and lots of hugs. I feel so much empathy at the moment for what others are going through.
For those of us who are stressed – please don’t let that stress crush you. This situation is one I have never faced before. But I have been through some serious stress before. Being attacked and the injuries I had was a big stressor, but also the “bullying” I had to endure before that chipped away at me internally and left me crumbling inside. I have been through phases of enormous stress. I know the effect it can have. Stress and burnout can have huge consequences, so please speak up if you are feeling completely overwhelmed. Carrying around overwhelming worry within can be very damaging.
But take one day at a time. Right now many of us are worrying about what has not happened yet. We are carrying around an inordinate amount of anxiety and it is robbing us of strength. Appreciate what we have today. Try not to let worry about tomorrow drain your strength. Appreciate that we’ve got life. We are making sacrifices, but we are protecting lives, we might be losing income and we might be anxious about other losses, but we must be appreciative of the nuggets of wonderful that are around. We’ve also got an international family who are hurting, so please please please let this crisis bring out the very best in you as a person. We should not be divided by horrid things like racism, nationalism or any isms. We should be united in love and kindness – more than ever before.
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I have been back in healthcare since last September…and I must admit, this coronavirus situation is testing me. It is busier than ever, and I feel as if I am out on the frontline. I was already tired, but the last few weeks have been crackers and I have a feeling it is going to get a lot busier! I feel as if I am running on adrenaline at the moment. We all are. A huge amount of work is being done, but there are stacks of other things to do everywhere I look!
I have a flight to Australia booked for this summer and although I will have to wait and see what happens, I am anxious in case by then we are told it is not permissible to travel. I mean if that is the case, I just have to accept it, but still, I am longing to go back there. None of us know what will happen tomorrow. But I would love to see Adelaide and Goldfinch again.
I spent most of my childhood reading Enid Blyton books such as The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and Mallory Towers. I read all of them, some of them more than once.
Be patient.
If you are ever struggling – it’s ok to ask a blogger for help and advice. Other bloggers are human. It’s endearing when a new blogger is a little lost and asks for advice.
It depends on the subject.
Not really. My little nest here is very pleasant. I sometimes type at my desk, sometimes while sitting on the sofa or even sitting up in bed.
My schedule used to be great. I had two mornings where I started work at 1pm and I could have a relaxing morning writing lots of posts and scheduling them to be published throughout the week. But since January 2020, my schedule changed dramatically. I have had to work a lot of overtime at work because a colleague left and they still have not recruited anyone to replace her.
Well, as I mentioned above, I used to have a schedule. It was working very well. But since January 2020, It’s helpful that when I did have those two mornings a week, I would sit down and write so much. My drafts folder has all that material I wrote when I had the time. I have not been able to write as much new material this year.
What did I want to do as a child? Climb trees, play football and eat ice-cream. Yes, climbing trees is still something I do in the summertime. Yes, I play football with friends in the park, again in the summer. Ice-cream is not as big a part of my life as I would like it to be. The problem is dairy. I occasionally have sorbet or a dairy free ice-cream, but to be honest ice-cream of any variety has almost dropped off my radar.
Oh I would probably do some things differently. I used to get a bit carried away at times. I was a pretty good kid at school – top grades for everything, on all the school sports teams etc, but sometimes I would get too excited and some teacher would blast me because I was shrieking in the corridors or dancing on the teacher’s desk (no, really, i did dance the can-can on the French teacher’s desk) or…play fighting with the boys and ending up smearing their faces in the mud. I think I was a good kid on the whole, but I had a bit of a wild streak that got me into trouble occasionally. Teachers and other kids liked me a lot though, so I didn’t get into any serious trouble. I “got away” with things like bunking off school.
Book to movie…oooh. The thing about many books is that you get to know the characters so much more intimately. I don’t find I connect with movie or television characters. It’s all too “flash in the pan” for me. When I read a book, my entire attention is on the book. But whenever I sit down to watch a movie or a show, I become distracted by all sorts. If I do watch a show, I often can hardly remember a thing about it afterwards. But I like a movie that captures a little of how I felt on reading the book.
I will give you two examples, The first is “The Count Of Monte Cristo”. I absolutely loved this book. I mean wow! What a story. It packs in an incredible amount of emotion and drama. It is one of the most epic books I have read. It is a long book. It’s not really a book you can make a two hour movie out of, more a twelve part television series. There is a great dramatisation that I think was for TV with Gerard Depardieu. They packed so much from the book into the series, although they did tweak the ending.
However, Hollywood did make a two hour movie out of it…and you know what – surprisingly, I loved it! I even forgave Hollywood for changing a key part of the plot (in connection with Mercedes). I loved it because, they captured the spirit of the book. The fascination other characters have with the mysterious and magnificent Count Of Monte Cristo. I think they did a great job of portraying how some of the other characters go from bad to worse in their selfish ambitious thinking.
Caramel 