2020: When Society Shifted

2020 was a bit nuts.

While life in some ways stayed the same, all changed outside. The sanctuary of my home was shaken by daily 5pm updates, my lads were home in lockdown while educators across the country scrambled to translate multi-faceted lessons to ones that could be delivered through laptops and iPads. Social lives shrunk, work lives changed, my life was changed very little in one respect yet became a different one in many ways. Home schooling, zoom coffees, food shortages, baking frenzies and daily walks around the garden became the norm.

But out of the chaos, as we realised our society was merely built on sand, there were moments when I felt blessed. While the news was filled with ‘What ifs’ and ‘What nexts’ I worked furiously to live in the NOW and focus on only what I could change. Reading lots and watching daily Russell Brand and Jay Shetty became my Go Tos and saved me on a daily basis. Especially in the early days.

My boys were home. Homeschooling was hit and miss and we weren’t great at it. But we muddled through working on atoms, periodic tables, story writing, graphic design of buildings, Harry Potter, velocity, volcanoes and a heightened obsession with rocks and fossils through the eldest’s A level Geology studies.

Decluttering each room was another Lockdown passion where I joined a Facebook group and cleaned a room a day of unnecessary stuff hidden in cupboard, boxes an corners, creating bags for the Homeless Shelters springing up and charity shops. As painful as that was to begin with it became such a real mission. I became slightly obsessed but had to do one room every two days as I had so much to move on to its next home! We purged the bookshelves of those books we had little or no connection to and passed them on, books the lads hadn’t noticed for years and flurries of books that I’d devoured at one time before instantly forgetting.

Ebay evening purchases brought us many said rocks and fossils, second hand books and vintage clothing as we filled the house with our exciting new finds.

The spaces I created were steadily filled with the said rocks and fossils, my bookshelves were refilled with our new eBay treasures. Reading took on new fervour and books were read, shared and returned  to their rightful places, organised in Library sections such as poetry, psychology, religion, Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter to name but a few.

Sharing music between family and friends through WhatsApp and Spotify became a daily endeavour with discoveries of music old and new. Daily Spotify often replaced the morning news, a welcome swap saving my sanity many times.

Throughout these trying times, our home is steadily becoming a place that is ours, that holds many memories and reflects how we are growing together. We are creating a sanctuary in the midst of this huge society shift and keeping ourselves as safe as we can and trying hard to keep everyone else safe too.

And don’t let me get started on the fun we had reinventing the garden!