Wednesday 15 April 2020

Jami's Project - Day 21

My younger daughter made a comment on Facebook about there being no guidebook for this pandemic, no expected response or way to behave but whatever you are feeling or doing is OK. How true is that?

Then, this morning, on the phone, a friend commented on the coping strategies of those who are badly affected financially. And something he said sparked a memory in me of what I learnt about Change Management way back when I worked in Human Resources. That's what all this is really, isn't it? It's just a massive change to life as we are accusomed to living it. Crikey, I'm slow on the uptake sometimes, I thought I had no idea about how we are living this experience.

Our daily lives, our routines have changed, our social relationships have changed, our sense of safety has probably changed, too. I look upon any time of change as like being on a wheel with emotions that can roll forward or backward at any time. We can move from grief to denial to anger to bargaining to despair, backwards and forwards, changing from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour - until we come to acceptance. It helps to face your feelings, identify where you are at (in modern speak), give it a name, focus on it for a few minutes. Then move on to whatever makes you feel good and focus on what you can control, rather than what you can't. For me, deep breathing helps. If nothing else, I can control a few deep breaths.

I give thanks for my advanced years, for my life experiences, for the ups and downs, for the abrupt changes to my life in the past which have taken me quite quickly to accepting what I have no power to change. Now if I had the power to change something – that's another story!

This is my daily entry for Jami's Project whereby she wants to create a collection of journal entries from people of different ages, from different countries and different parts of this country, during this 30-day, Covid-19 period. She wants to highlight how “in this together” we all are, regardless of government policies, and the influence it will have on our wellbeing and to evaluate what individuals do to cope. She has participants from Alaska, Canary Island, France, Canada and Norway. (Jami is my grand-daughter.)

The Daily Count

Total cases 1386, Northland 26
20 new cases
13 in hospital
728 recovered
9 deaths




10 comments:

  1. It looks as if your header picture wants to be 1600px by 627px. Give that a whirl and let me know.

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  2. It is both change and challenge, and that is the hard part.

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    1. HI Tabor, That's where I'm very lucky. My routines have changed but not my way of life.

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  3. G-d, grand me the ability to accept with serenity the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. ~ from Reinhold Niebuhr's original Serenity Prayer

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    1. That's a beautiful prayer, messymimi. I remember how it stuck in my mind when my sister was paralysed in an accident. She lived the rest of her life as a quadriplegic and sure taught her siblings a thing or two about change and acceptance.

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  4. I particularly agree with your last paragraph.

    We are all changed now but some will be less changed than others because they've already been through ups and downs others many not have experienced.

    Your posts are really making my lazy brain think.

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    1. I'm very grateful to Jami for including me in this project, Graham. I know I don't do as much naval gazing as the young do but I also know my perspective will be different and will be of interest to her.

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  5. And you've even changed your blog layout! ;)
    I keep thinking that personally, so far, I'm in the curious position of my daily routines probably being less changed than most by this pandemic (so far!) - as I've had many years of health-related early retirement already to get adjusted to a slow pace life with most of my time spent at home anyway. And a lot of my social contacts already taking place online!

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    1. Time on my hands, Monica and times of change, too. I think these times are easier for those of us who have lived a quiet life anyway. Take care.

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