When I wake up, there is a mild sense of dread as I move for the first time. Optimistic Scale 4 ish. Back is often stiff and I begin very slowly and carefully. Within the hour muscles are loosening up. Optimistic Scale 8.5. Then gradually, as the day goes on, a sense of weariness, unrealised goals and disappointments, begin to drape themselves around the place. It’s awfully like a slow puncture. OS 5 and dropping. I’m not an early bird but I do love the optimism of morning. So sitting in bed, drinking coffee, I asked Mike what I ought to write about in my blog this morning! OS 8.5 And he said, reflect on Amanda Gorman’s poem used at Biden’s swearing in. So I had a listen. A mindful, thoughtful listen. What jumps out at you? What do you relate to? OS 10
Quiet isn’t always peace – at 2 in the morning, my head can be a maelstrom. OS 1. I love this truth.
A nation that isn’t broken, simply unfinished – lets not give up even though the path ahead seems pretty rocky and very nearly impossible. OS 5.
And most of the last quarter – it’s written about America, but you could substitute in the UK, or any other country for that matter. What will we bequeath our children? Is it still possible to leave our world, country, town in a better state than when we arrived? That being black or a woman or poor or just different won’t be the thing that defines us, because we have lived with daily injustice that is shrugged off as normal. OS 2 and falling. Is the whole global warming thing too much, too hard to contemplate, too big to do anything meaningful about? OS 1. That some young people have been on counselling lists for years and are still nowhere near getting what they need. That at the end of this time there will be a whole tranche of nurses, doctors, paramedics and relatives who will need help to come to terms with what has happened and there is nowhere near enough mental health provision. Not close. OS 0.5.
Its easy to give up. I have sitting on the dung heap, feeling sorry for myself, down to a fine art. OS 0.5. But its still morning and there is sunshine flooding the room. OS 2.5 and climbing. So one step at a time. I can’t bring in legislation but I can try not to buy stuff with too much packaging, learn how to sign petitions so that injustice can be brought into the light. To try and challenge the upside down nature of our wages and rents. To applaud effort rather than results, though results are important too if you are trying to find a vaccine. To speak hopefully when it feels hopeless etc. You get the picture. OS 6 and climbing.
