Growing Old – Lock Down Day 40

Well here we are on Day 40 of a lock down, it sounds kind of Biblical! as the world has never experienced this before. It has to be said that I am not a religious person so I decided to look it up, the Number 40 is mentioned 146 times in Scripture, the book of Exodus has 40 chapters and the Bible was written by 40 different people. The number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation in a religious context. Noah of course springs to mind first with 40 days and nights of rain, the children of Israel were punished by wandering the wilderness for 40 years before a new generation was allowed to possess the promised land, and of course Moses lived 40 years both in Egypt and in the desert and was also on Mount Sinai for 40 days twice. The prophet Jonah warned ancient Nineveh for 40 days, that its destruction would come because of its many sins and the prophet Ezekiel laid on his right side for 40 days to symbolize Judah’s sins and Elijah went 40 days without food or water. Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights just before his ministry began and appeared to his disciples and others for 40 days after his resurrection…….

So in biblical meaning “those called of God NOW are under probation, or judgment, based on how they live by every word of God”. Well that says it all!! we have all been tested and trialled during this time, not only mentally and emotionally by the loss of our freedoms, being restricted and locked down as the governments, authorities and rulers test our civil obedience and emergency laws. We as civilians are testing or at least watching to see if they are friend or foe, will they cross the line of civil liberties and human rights? Our health care systems and social structures are being tested to the chore too, we are all feeling tested and trialled to our limits. I will leave you to ponder on the meaning of Probation and find your own evaluation: Critical examination and evaluation or subjection to such examination and evaluation: Subjection of an individual to a period of testing and trial to ascertain fitness for a task: Giving an offender freedom during good behaviour under the supervision of a probation officer: A period of time during which someone is judging your character and ability, in order to see if you are suitable.

I did go out yesterday for 15 mins and was in appreciation of every minute, today however leaves me with a deeper yearning to be outside once again. Curiously I have just had a conversation with a good friend who has been pushing the rules of lockdown purely because she lives in an area where she can. She is feeling angry and annoyed at one of her other friends in the UK that has been out for a 3 hour walk locally, and also separately went to visit a friend, but in the UK they are allowed out for exercise, it may sound excessive but it’s not breaking restrictions. As far as visiting a friend, she herself has had many cups of tea with neighbours living close by. We talked about pent up emotions that are happening after explaining I feel the same about her going out with her dog for longer walks than most dare to do, regulations state that dog walking for 5 minutes is permitted and you need to be able point to your home if stopped. She has also been driving to shops more than is necessary, so we went on to discuss how she would feel if her friends ended up with the virus etc. She calmed her anger as I explained that we are all feeling slightly annoyed when we see or hear of others doing things that we cannot, like I have said many times before we are not all equal in this.

Workers are starting to feel cheated that when this ends they didn’t have time at home with family and slow down, non workers are feeling annoyed that they cant work with all the ensuing financial problems and so it goes on. We need to understand that many are angry or frustrated as each of our own don’t have’s are amplified by others actions or situations. Upon the lifting of restrictions I feel there will be a lot of pent up emotions flying around, we need to prepare and understand where they are coming from, work through them accepting each others realities of confinement, trying to move on past our own frustrations as each of us would feel the same way placed in the others shoes and would have probably acted the same way!

This morning some Oregano oil arrived which I ordered over a week before lock down started, as an aromatherapist I checked my stocks and ordered more T Tree, Thyme and Oregano oil all of which are good to help kill off viruses, the others arrived quite quickly and I thought that this was lost in transit. The point is that on arrival the delivery man to my surprise was not wearing a face mask! Most unusual, also the small package was wrapped and sealed with some plastic/cellophane that took me 5 minutes to break through. Whatever it was I have never seen it before, completely sealed around the cardboard box, then came the guilt of so much plastic packaging, I do hope this does not become the norm. Moving on to some other news it is reported that “French researchers are planning to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients and frontline health workers after a study suggested smokers may be much less at risk of contracting the virus”. I am not sure if this is good or bad news!

Yesterday was Earth Day and the Dalai Lama gave a speech, so I would like to leave you with a snippet: “ COVID-19 is ‘a lesson in universal responsibility’ Whether we like it or not, we have been born on this earth as part of one great family. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another, ultimately each of us is just a human being like everyone else. Furthermore, we all have the same right to pursue happiness and avoid suffering. When we recognize that all beings are equal in this respect, we automatically feel empathy and closeness towards others. Out of this comes a genuine sense of universal responsibility: the wish to actively help others overcome their problems”

As always please stay safe and take precautions to protect yourself and loved ones including taking care of your mental health, find your pent up emotions and work with them before we return to daily social interactions so we can find ourselves more balanced in our reactions to interaction💜