Be Kind

The message our Government is pushing is to be calm, be kind, and to continue to practice physical distancing and hand hygiene, and coughing/sneezing etiquette.

All of these seem so easy that they don’t really feel like we are doing enough in the face of a pandemic. I want to say this is enough.

I want to say staying home or going for small walks and avoiding people is a forking huge achievement. It is. Even for those of us on our fairly usual stay at home lives, every single day is a tremendous accomplishment in helping save lives.

It doesn’t feel like a proactive kind of thing to help, but it is. So much more than we can possible feel if we are in our own little bubbles.

I can’t see the effect, at all. We are on a little side street and unless I walk to the shops I see no difference in my life. Fewer cars maybe. Same number of people on the foot path. But I don’t see the virus and where it is and who has it and I can’t see houses glowing pink to show they are safe.

I want to assure everyone that yes. Even if the numbers of cases climb that staying at home is still worth while. It helps save my life directly and indirectly.

If you ever feel anxious about not doing enough, please remember my bubble and the fact that you have protected it again for a day. And think about all the other bubbles you have protected.

Anxiety takes emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical tolls. SO when you do, please do whatever you do to self sooth or calm and hold onto the fact that yes, you have made a difference.

I was given this memory from SM and I wanted to share it from a time where I was dealing with feelings of not being or doing enough to show it’s a common feeling. That over time it is possible to shift expectations to match reality.

29 March 2017
Hmm. You know how perspective is supposed to work right? So why is it after 18 months of really low productivity and goal shifting I can’t see actual progress when it actually happens? The assumption is that small progress should feel like big progress. But that’s not how it goes.
Today I cut a bodice pattern, made a lining for it, cut the lining and shell of a trained skirt, and removed the dye from a large amount of fabric. Also got a bit more organising done.
So why does that not feel like an accomplishment? I think it’s part of the whole healing thing where you are still anticipating something bad that you experience it.
So every single day I work to think about progress as actual progress. To try and truthfully evaluate everything, not through the filter of sadness that is clearly still there.