I was out running the other day on my once a day exercise thinking about all sorts of things, as you do when you are out for a run or walk, the mind swirls this way and that way and I think all manner of nonsense but occasionally I think of something useful and on this particular run I was thinking about the positive changes to my life that have only happened because of COVID. I know this is a weird thing to say and I hope its not insensitive as I realise its been an incredibly hard time for many and my heart goes out to those who are suffering, especially for those with loved ones who are ill or indeed may have even lost someone they love.
When times are tough I like to try and remind myself of good things. I think its a natural protective instinct. So I thought I would take a moment to reflect on this time and wonder what positives changes have come about in these recent times.
1. The combination of not being able to swim and moving my Ironman back to next year has meant I’m spending more time working on strength in my garden and I feel physically fitter than I have in a long time, maybe ever.
2. I’m cooking and baking all sorts of things I haven’t tried before. We have very little flour left but I made Roti breads to go with our favourite homemade curries a few times. It’s so lovely to make something like that rather than buying it from a packet.
3. Lots of family household time. My son and stepson have spent some time together painting fences in the garden and are getting to know each other better, so lovely to see.
4. I’m not remotely domestic and normally struggle to find time to clean or do jobs in the garden. Recently I’ve been catching up a bit and it feels nice to be more on top of things.
5. Getting to know the neighbours. Our neighbours are lovely and we’ve now joined a WA group with them and chat about all manner of things. People help each other out and today they all came out sing one person down the road happy birthday. It’s just so heart warming.
I could in fact list many more but I’ll stop at five so I don’t get too boring and waffle on.