Six Lockdown Silver Linings

Well folks, it’s stormy going out there at the moment. It’s scary, it’s confronting, and even for those of us who are not on the frontline fighting this virus every day, it sometimes feels almost impossible to see the light beyond the storm. Moments in history, such as these, always bring out the best, and worst, of humanity – it has been uplifting to see incredible feats of kindness, empathy and selflessness, from all corners of our community. They also demand that we, as individuals, reflect on our own contributions. The choices we make don’t just make ripples, but can turn into waves: waves of chaos or waves of calm and positivity. Despite feeling that much of our freedom has been taken from us, every single one of us has the opportunity to make choices and create waves. And if our efforts of kindness and compassion never make it past our front door, nobody should ever belittle the importance of them, and the impact they will have in the future. With this in mind, I spoke to a few local mums who have made the choice to savour the extra time with their families, spend time creating happiness, and channel their energy into gratitude, productivity and love. Below, they each share their own personal ‘lockdown silver lining’: the moments of utter joy found amongst the chaos, enjoyed whilst waiting for the storm to pass.

I am thoroughly enjoying spending time with my babies. I’m loving having every second with them, they are sweet, funny, and crazy and I love them dearly so I’m treasuring every single moment. Not every second is bliss, but it’s my heaven. We, at the moment, are together, safe and happy. Take care and stay safe – my silver lining is simple, but I’m incredibly grateful.

During these unprecedented times, when there is so much uncertainty on the future, I have often felt guilty about saying (so far) I’ve been lucky and it’s been good for me. I have been able to spend time with my own children. We still have the school work for my eight year old but my fifteen year old is a GCSE child who won’t be sitting his exams so I have loved having time to support him with future choices. We have all spend more time cycling, exploring our natural environment in glorious weather, enjoying the wildlife and keeping fit (ish), lots of gardening being done by all of us so the garden is looking great. Both children have been baking and even making an evening meal, learning new skills and building more confidence in the kitchen – my son is even experimenting with one-minute microwave cookies! Outside, he even built a temporary coop for our chickens (due to a delivery issue) and both love the fresh eggs. It warms my heart seeing them happy and excited as they look and nurture our chickens; it is giving them a distraction from the persistent virus news that (unless managed) was starting to bring them down. They miss their friends, but we have technology that allows some contact. My daughter has learnt origami from a friend via Face time. We have had socials with friends and doing a BBQ dinner party all together this weekend. I love the chance to be creative, think more about humanity, and the environment, take time to breathe – and live...

My silver lining is being able to connect to my children at a deeper level and them connecting with each other. At this slower pace my preschoolers have learnt to dress themselves completely including all shoes and coats and have learnt to make their beds. My four year old’s speech has come on bounds even without his therapy and pre-school and they’re generally just much happier and contented.

My teen has been able to use this time to really establish school work at her pace so that it’s embedded and she is feeling more confident. She has had time to reflect on where she is and who she is. My eldest, as a key worker, has worked every day: on call 24/7 – he also has some friends with small children, so is shopping for them, he’s making daily checks on his friends’ well-being, and generally being an awesome human being. Their resilience astounds me every day and I’m so very proud of them all.

This is our son who is 18 months old. One thing Covid-19 has taught me is that it’s okay to ask for and accept help. I’ve always been a stubborn, independent person who doesn’t like accepting help. Yet, during selfisolation, and then shielding, we still haven’t had to enter a shop for things. We have had neighbours collect his prescriptions, local NHS volunteers deliver medication for me, and parents and friends search and ‘doorstep deliver’ items we are struggling to get on our online shops! The sense of gratitude to anyone that has helped us is immense and moving forward I know I will accept more ‘help’ – probably crucial ahead of baby number two coming later in the year. I’ve been making quilts for about 10 years now but it’s always been something I fit in here and there when I have time, and lately there’s not been much of that since having my son (who’s two-and-a-half now). But since the lockdown there have been such huge amounts of stress and worry, coupled with lots of time indoors with nowhere to go. To keep a check on my anxiety and worries, I did some sewing, and realised how quickly my thoughts calmed down (because you have to focus so hard with a sewing machine!). I suddenly had loads of time to sit down at my sewing machine and concentrate.

I had lots of boxes of scraps of material and I decided to make a quilt with them all; I do one block at a time and then sew them all together. The quilt is growing and growing – I probably do about 5-10 blocks a week. Heaven knows how big the quilt will be by the time we go back to any sort of normality! I’ve called it the Quarantine Quilt. I might end up making more than one, though! It’s great to have something so productive and creative to put my time and energy into. Making something and being able to say ‘I made that’ is so exciting and fulfilling. Plus I can’t watch the news or browse social media while I’m doing it!

The quilt is very colourful, using all sorts of patterns and types of fabric. It’s probably not very conventional if there was a quilting rule book – but luckily I don’t think there is one. What’s also wonderful is how many memories there will be in the quilt. Lots of fabrics come from outfits I can remember, fabric from other people - there’s a bit of my dad’s shirt, a hanky I had as a child, fabric from a dress my gran made herself... plus there are all sorts of textures to feel. My little boy will hopefully enjoy it too once it’s finished; he has his own quilt that I’ve made him, and he does love it more than his other blankets. The only trouble is having a hobby like this when the weather is so nice – it gets a bit warm underneath a quilt!!

We can’t help but think of all the things we have had to cancel, the events we have missed or are missing out on, the trips and experiences that won’t happen now: so many things we were looking forward to in celebration of our 40th birthdays. But in actual fact this lockdown has brought us closer together, has given us hours together that otherwise we would not have had, and has helped us find renewed joy in the simple things in life. We have baked, walked, shared stories, had our own home school doing what we want and what we are interested in; we’ve had sleepovers, played games, gardened and enjoyed the sunshine, created pieces of art and so much more. 2020 might suck in so many ways, but I will think of it as the year we stayed home to save lives, the year we got the time we always wished we had together, the year life slowed down, we rested, we loved and we laughed. We have so much to be thankful for... our health, and our family, which truly is the most precious thing.