macro
- Izzy’s endless patience with my up and down mood
- Instigating a cake exchange with friends nearby
- The impending resumption of Premier League and fantasy football
- Having the choice to ignore the government’s gradual lifting of lockdown
- I got some fresh yeast from the bakery and have rekindled my love of baking bread and buns. Pictured above is a batch of Skillingsboller or shilling buns. Yum!
- Spent a couple of hours doing the crossword with my parents via video call
- Discovered we can now recycle a lot more plastic items from home
- Ate breakfast out in the yard on a couple of blisteringly hot days
- accept it won’t be perfect
- be prepared to live with the outcome you get
- put all your trust in the hairdresser
- don’t interfere unless asked for feedback
- accept it won’t be perfect
- aim for good enough
- start small to build confidence, you can always go back and do more
- Discovering a delicious carrot soup recipe.
- Richard Osman’s weekly alphabet quizzes. To take part you need to subscribe to his newsletter.
- Celebrating my middle nephew’s birthday with family (from afar).
- An early morning invigorating walk around the neighbourhood.
- Successfully recreating a friend’s recipe for corned beef pie. The ultimate comfort food.
- A park on my doorstep.
- Beer deliveries by bike.
- Being able to source flour relatively easily. If you’ve not been so lucky, try local weigh houses or zero waste stores as they’re more able, and used to, batching up larger quantities into smaller packets.
- A decent Internet connection (keeping my fingers' crossed that I’ve not jinxed it by saying this).
- My wife, who is able and willing to go to the supermarket.
Favourited: Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful
Link: elemental.medium.com/your-surg… Author: Tara Haelle Time to read: 15 mins.
Another article that prompts reflection on how we’ve coped during the pandemic. It introduced me to a handful of concepts, including surge capacity and ambiguous loss.
Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive systems — mental and physical — that humans draw on for short-term survival in acutely stressful situations, such as natural disasters. But natural disasters occur over a short period, even if recovery is long. Pandemics are different — the disaster itself stretches out indefinitely.
“The pandemic has demonstrated both what we can do with surge capacity and the limits of surge capacity,” says Masten. When it’s depleted, it has to be renewed. But what happens when you struggle to renew it because the emergency phase has now become chronic?
It concludes with some good points to help as we continue to navigate an uncertain future.
#favourite #pandemic #psychology
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June reading
In this order…
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
How Not to Be a Boy by Robert Webb
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Lanny by Max Porter
A Burst of Light and Other Essays by Audre Lorde
Tags: #reading #lockdown
Gratitude #004
Tags: #gratitude #cv19 #lockdown #june2020
ducks, Newburyport
The fact that after two months I’ve finally finished reading ducks, Newburyport, the fact that I got into the rhythm of it quite early on but it felt like a slog nontheless, the fact that overall I’d say I enjoyed the insight into one person’s mind, stream of consciousness, mountain lion, gun violence, mother-daughter relationships, polluted water, the fact that I could have done with less Laura Ingalls Wilder chat, the fact that all sense of time got distorted, sleep, wake, childhood memories, day-after-day, the fact that both nothing happened and everything happened, key events, flood, runaway, home invasion, mountain lion, the fact that it’s a real feat of thought and creativity, the fact that I made cinamon rolls during the time I was reading this, but I don’t have a Candy-Apple Red kneeding machine, the fact that now it’s over I kind of miss her voice.
Tags: #reading #may2020 #cv19 #lockdown
Gratitude #003
Tags: #gratitude #cv19 #lockdown #may2020
A short poem
…inspired by England’s new lockdown slogan
On an evening walk
Stay alert while watching birds
Don’t fall over your feet
Tags: #cv19 #lockdown #stayalert #may2020
Tips for lockdown haircuts
From the client:
From the hairdresser:
Tags: #may2020 #cv19 #lockdown
Venturing forth
For the past five weeks I’ve only left the house to exercise. I’ve not been beyond a 2km radius from my house in that time.
This week I finally ventured further afield, hopping in the car to go to give blood at Newcastle Donor Centre. I was a little apprehensive about it, but it felt good to see some different scenery on the drive, passing by the cows on the Town Moor. The roads were quieter than usual but not as quiet as I’d expected. I found myself wondering where everyone was going.
While waiting my turn I bumped into a friend and we had a quick catch up. I hadn’t realised quite how much those chance encounters are missing. The closest I’ve got recently are the momentary comedy stand offs on the street working out with strangers who is going to step aside.
Tags: #may2020 #cv19 #lockdown
Gratitude #002
Tags: #gratitude #april2020 #cv19 #lockdown
Gratitude #001
Tags: #gratitude #april2020 #cv19 #lockdown
A pure soul and a smile in your heart
Thanks Cards Against Humanity for bringing some joy to my day.
I don’t have any kids. Should I download this?
If you have a pure soul and a smile in your heart: yes.
From Cards Against Humanity Family Edition via Thought Shrapnel Weekly
Tags: #lockdown #games #april2020
Coronavirus confessions #1
As I’ve been reading over the past few days I’ve found myself forgetting that the characters in my book aren’t on lockdown. I keep being surprised that they’re free to leave the house and meet other people.
Tags: #cv19 #lockdown #march2020
A moment of bliss
I woke up this morning, stretched and got out of bed. As I walked to the kitchen to make tea the usual narrative started running through my head.
What day is it?
What’s for breakfast?
What have I got on today?
For a moment I’d forgotten life is different now. And it was bliss.
Tags: #cv19 #march2020
Change is the one constant
Today I’ve been reading sample essays on how coaching can help to facilitate change. One opens with the line:
Change is the one constant we all live with, that and the certainty of our own death.
Cheery.
Tags: #march2020 #mementomori
What is enough?
Enough seems like a radical idea in a world that is conditioned to more. The concept of sufficiency runs contrary to so many values the Western world has ingrained in us. Our autopilot strives for bigger, better, more….
Several studies have shown that once a certain ‘satiation point’ has been reached, more money has no long-term effect on our level of contentment. And yet, we relentlessly optimise our private and professional lives for more, perhaps too scared to contemplate what we would do with ourselves if we were so foolish to accept enough.
Source: Kai Brach in Dense Discovery Issue 73
#DenseDiscovery #quote #sustainability
Prioritizing wellbeing
In Adam Smith’s earlier work, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” which I think is just as important, he made the observation that the value of any government is judged in proportion to the extent that it makes its people happy. I think that is a good founding principle for any group of countries focused on promoting well-being. None of us have all of the answers, not even Scotland, the birthplace of Adam Smith. But in the world we live in today, with growing divides and inequalities, with disaffection and alienation, it is more important than ever that we ask and find the answers to those questions and promote a vision of society that has well-being, not just wealth, at its very heart.
Source: Why governments should prioritize well-being TED Talk by Nicola Sturgeon
#wellbeing #happiness #quote
Life is short, don't wait
If you find yourself thinking that life is too short for something, you should try to eliminate it if you can…
Cultivate a habit of impatience about the things you most want to do. Don’t wait before climbing that mountain or writing that book or visiting your mother. You don’t need to be constantly reminding yourself why you shouldn’t wait. Just don’t wait.
Source: Life is short by Paul Graham
#mementomori #quote
Balancing the accounts
Just because we’re working to fill one account (our bank account), doesn’t mean we should diminish our life and health account in the process. We need both accounts in good standing to have a good life.
Source: Your other account balance by Paul Jarvis
#wellbeing #productivity #worklife #quote