Of Coping, Lockdowns and To Each His Own..

#sareespeak

#womenofsareespeak

#artsilk

#SS/19/100/2020

Week 1.
Lockdown.
Forgive the rambling, please. This lockdown has just about done my head in.

A week of working from home, Zoom, calls, remote support, cooking, planning meals, chatting with family, friends, social media bombardment, binge watching Serials (what’s new). Rising early, trying not to think too much, going with the flow. I think that’s the trick, don’t think, don’t rationalise, just do.
I’ve always believed in Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s ‘Let Go and Let God’, to the point where my girls and students end my sentence with a chuckle before exams, performances.

Working from home is actually a little tough compared to Working from Not at home. We have been deemed an essential service, which is an honour, but tough honour, so days are spent on calls, providing tech support and just lending a ear. Hearing distressing stories, pointing towards the right direction, the correct channels, handling remote tech support challenges, but taking it one client, one task at a time. Almost serving up fried brains for lunch. Stopped rushing. Breathing, thinking, prepping documentation to instruct on line. In a sense, prepping for the future, if this is to be the new normal.
I seem to be constantly Zooming too. Work. Music. Haven’t zoomed for friends, family as yet. No, that’s on my Whatsapp chat feed. I read, place the phone down, pick it up and there’s sixty plus messages.

Then there is the general kindness, goodness of people. Tomatoes in Indian grocery shops, are cheap! So are avocados. Goodness of human nature or supply demand theories? In Sri Lanka, Colonies place their jackfruit, mango harvests, in a common place, for the inhabitants to share.

Went shopping. Apart from the isolated case of a lady asking me to move my trolley as she thought we weren’t maintaining the 2m distance, and her poor husband apologising for her stressed-out behaviour, it was an overall hassle free experience. The cashiers were wonderful, smiling, attempting to make small talk, doing their little bit to ensure that we are not made to feel like pariahs.

Murphy’s Law wreaked its mindless havoc on the day of the impending midnight lockdown.
My daughter had transferred data from her laptop onto an external drive, only to find that the drive had crashed later .
Mayhem, Major Meltdown.
We went from tech store, to hard disk recovery online support, to hardware store to some form of resignation.
I was simultaneously trying to sort out a client’s tech issue – she was in danger of not being with a working computer during the lockdown and needed to help her son with schoolwork.
I think what we come away with here, is that,
We have a choice,
We can embrace the situation, try to be as positive as we can, yet allow ourselves to cry out loud or in the shower.
My coping mechanism is to smother my family with recycled or otherwise food, hence the crazy food posts, and write, meditate with my instrument.
In these trying testing times, it is as if we are in a war zone, owning invisible ration cards, queues snaking out of supermarkets up to carparks, no one smiling or making eye contact, shelves empty or stacked with one or two items, shopkeepers shaking their heads when asked if an item is in stock.
This is exactly when we,
As a family,
A street,
A community,
A nation,
Must rally aorund and support each other the best way we can.
Be Kind.
No tearing down of people’s posts,
No rants when someone decides to post a delicious, artistic meal,
Instead, we must remember
To Each His Own.
We all have individual coping mechanisms.
We cook, post, laugh, write, dance, sing happy, sad songs, let it be.
And while we find ways to cope, we heal, nature heals, we hear and see fauna and flora thriving. A friend mentioned being awakened at 3.30am by a rooster, he’d never heard this earlier, another friend was having a cup of tea on her deck, observing a Kereru bird amongst the palms.

In the words of The Beatles, Let it Be.
“And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is
Still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be. Yeah
There will be an answer, let it be”.
Let it be, let’s be positive and move on, things will get better.

Sorry, this is a long post. Let me end on this bright note. The girls released a music video at the end of week one of lockdown. Recorded in two different homes, exhausting, syncing tracks, takes, retakes. With a single mic, a laptop and non commercial software. In two locations, a virtual concert during lockdown. Amidst the music making, Meltdowns, tears, cheers, featured aplenty.
On the bright side however, they were occupied totally.
A meditation, living in the moment, unknowingly practising Mindfulness.

Am in an oft recycled saree, light silk, green border, multicoloured flowered body and pallu, with a totally mismatched brown checked, orange bordered blouse, against my daughter’s happy wall, hoping maybe that some of that yellow sunshine will rub off onto me.

Have a listen to the girls’ music video too, to add a little more sunshine into your day. Stay safe and blessed dear ladies.