Joanna
I’m aware things in the outside world are becoming much less restricted here too, though because of limitations in my health, any recent lifting of restrictions (or upcoming ones coming into operation this coming Saturday) aren’t affecting me personally yet.
It’s such an interesting idea people sharing about their various lockdown experiences around the world.....and I’m really looking forward to looking at the articles on your website :)
I’m not able yet get to lots of the things I’d like to, but it’s in my heart to look at when I can, and IF I can manage to write a little contribution of my own, I gladly will. Well worth it to make someone very happy! :)
Hmmmm.... I’m just a little unsure I’d actually have much of a “lockdown” story to share, since I already had SO much previous experience of being “locked down” from my health....and so my experience of lockdown (versus “normal” life previously) has not been as dramatically different as a majority of people’s would have been.
When my brain is able to think a little better, I’ll let you know :)
You asked if I had seen Daryl and Yvonne since lockdown began....
Actually I was able to once! It was around 4 weeks back, not long after the government had announced that people were allowed to meet in groups of up to six in gardens and outdoor spaces.
I was already feeling very unwell by then, but still had the last tiniest bit of capacity and so was thankfully able to take up Daryl and Yvonne’s offer of cycling over from Matlock (on their tandem!) to meet up with me for a lunchtime picnic :)
Although that may have been my last day up and about for a long time, and I had so hoped to be more well for it, I do have some happy memories from those precious 2 or 3 hours and was thankful we were able to enjoy it together :)
We met in a field in Mosborough: a lovely quiet hill overlooking a beautiful field of poppies. For me it was only a very short walk, but for my Daisy Bank friends it was a 42 mile round trip with a lot of hills along the way!
Oh, I’m so thankful I am able to sit and write again. Sorry it has taken me sooooooo long. It felt like I was in the midst of an acutely debilitating storm. Some of the most simple things of everyday functioning have felt impossible to get to when feeling that shutdown and disconnected.
Even now I am not fully out the other side. Yet little-by-little I am finding myself able to press through and do little things like wash my hair and reconnect with friends.
It may be in a very limited way for now, but I am just so thankful to be able to feel connect living again and have precious ability to communicate :)
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I thought I’d send a photo I took yesterday, along with more happy photo memories from my special Ascension Day adventure last Thursday :)
It was very much a modern “pilgrim’s progress” adventure, as the first photo shows the path I walked down to a place called “Never Fear Dam” (that’s the second picture) and then the journey on along the river led me to a building officially called “Seldom Seen Engine House” (VERY hidden away in the woods)!
When I was at Queen Mary’s we always used to set lessons aside and go off in our year groups on special day trip adventures on Ascension Day each year. Now I don’t think I’ve thought of that much since then, but this year....as I was counting off the days between Passover and Pentecost, I found myself drawn to when Ascension Day was and thought how much I would like to go on my own special adventure this year!
Well, when Ascension Day dawned it was such a beautiful sunshine day, like high summer, but my brain was so very tired and even my body seemed crying out for rest. So I actually didn’t get out until around 5pm....which seemed very late in the day for a special “day trip” adventure...and in reality the furthest I could see myself going was maybe ten or fifteen minutes from Harbour’s Rest...which didn’t leave a lot of scope for an extra special adventure!
I actually decided to go to the little garden at the side of Mosborough Methodist Church (the building where we have met as River of Life) where there is a lovely little bench to sit and nobody else would be (it being a private little garden, with the gates to it at the front of the building padlocked when the building isn’t in use, but which can be “secretly” :) accessed from a different way, and which the care~taker who lives next to the building has welcomed me to use when I’m wanting a quiet place outside to quietly pray or read :)
Anyway, that was my plan when I set out that day, but as I mentioned in my last email, I actually ended up walking up a hill that brought me up right above Mosborough...and having a lovely walk into the countryside :)
Since then I have been very limited in when I have been able to get out (or even do things in my own home), but these memories remind me that unexpected adventures can be just around the corner when we least expect them!
I was also able to complete a special creative project during this time of lockdown, which was finishing a happy idea I started last Autumn. I’ll attach a photo of the finished result :)
Around October time I printed some of my poems out at Daryl and Yvonne’s and had their help to guillotine some thick gold card and trim the poems down....all ready to lovingly prepare as a special gift for a beautiful lady in her eighties who has been a missionary in Kenya for around 30 years now. She lives out there and I met her last year when she was back visiting family and friends in the U.K.
It was the week I was blessed with my special Lake-District-in-a-day-holiday around my birthday time, and this lady Pat heard me sharing some of my recent poetry about God’s love and goodness, and she ended up in tears each time I shared a new poem.
They impacted her so deeply that she earnestly wanted to have some poems she could put up around her house in Kenya, that the children and young adults she had taken in as family (who once lived on the streets and rubbish dump) would also be able to see.
My special creative project to do this for her took longer to get completed than I’d originally hoped, but as Nicky broke her hip in December and had to delay her planned January trip to Kenya (I was going to have the poems hand delivered) then it wasn’t actually a problem not being able to get to complete it last year....
....so I actually had an extra little window of time to get things finished...
....and then the lockdown came about....
.......and though my poetry project DID get lovingly finished (my reason for happily starting this story to you when beginning this email about a month ago).....fast-forward to the present day and sadly in the last couple of weeks Pat had a very unexpected heart attack out in Kenya and did not survive it.
It is very sad. She was such a beautiful person with such a special heart for the dozens of children out in Kenya who she had become mum to. And they were still hoping to have several more years with her, believing that with her amazing vitality she could very likely live to 100!
But there it is,.....
.....and actually it’s her funeral taking place out in Kenya today.
I’m not sure yet who I’m going to give her specially prepared poetry-gift-envelope to. So much love went into preparing it, so I really want it to go to someone who would really value having them :)
Actually, during lockdown I had another special creative idea come to my heart that I am so hoping to complete this year. (Hmmmm....If I went on how things are at the moment it would look impossible to get to even starting, but in my heart I am still believing that in due time it WILL be possible :)
In a nutshell, over the first 30 days of lockdown I found myself writing many beautiful poems and songs (about 18 in total I think!) and my vision is that at some point this year I can lay them out into a couple of special booklets to bless my friends with as gifts.
I thought I’d send a photo I took yesterday, along with more happy photo memories from my special Ascension Day adventure last Thursday :)
It was very much a modern “pilgrim’s progress” adventure, as the first photo shows the path I walked down to a place called “Never Fear Dam” (that’s the second picture) and then the journey on along the river led me to a building officially called “Seldom Seen Engine House” (VERY hidden away in the woods)!
When I was at Queen Mary’s we always used to set lessons aside and go off in our year groups on special day trip adventures on Ascension Day each year. Now I don’t think I’ve thought of that much since then, but this year....as I was counting off the days between Passover and Pentecost, I found myself drawn to when Ascension Day was and thought how much I would like to go on my own special adventure this year!
Well, when Ascension Day dawned it was such a beautiful sunshine day, like high summer, but my brain was so very tired and even my body seemed crying out for rest. So I actually didn’t get out until around 5pm....which seemed very late in the day for a special “day trip” adventure...and in reality the furthest I could see myself going was maybe ten or fifteen minutes from Harbour’s Rest...which didn’t leave a lot of scope for an extra special adventure!
I actually decided to go to the little garden at the side of Mosborough Methodist Church (the building where we have met as River of Life) where there is a lovely little bench to sit and nobody else would be (it being a private little garden, with the gates to it at the front of the building padlocked when the building isn’t in use, but which can be “secretly” :) accessed from a different way, and which the care~taker who lives next to the building has welcomed me to use when I’m wanting a quiet place outside to quietly pray or read :)
Anyway, that was my plan when I set out that day, but as I mentioned in my last email, I actually ended up walking up a hill that brought me up right above Mosborough...and having a lovely walk into the countryside :)