Day 58 – After working from home with small children I can relate to the struggles many are facing right now as schools and nurserys are closed. Even within the last few weeks where limited hours are now allowed to take them outside to exercise, these times fall within working hours. So with 4.5 million families in Spain having small children and working from home, they are facing an overload of responsibility. Experts are calling for urgent measures as parents struggle with no childcare available or assistance allowed from grandparents easing childcare or chores. These parents struggle to work from home and give attention to the children and online schooling, one family with 8 year old twins state “We mix one thing with the other and everything gets done at once and everything is done badly: working from home, distance learning, making lunch, looking after the house, the kids, and then it’s time for bed. We don’t have time for anything, not even to take the kids out or to go out ourselves, we are working four jobs: teachers, parents, IT specialists, and domestic organizers” they say that focusing on work is essential “It’s like this day after day, feeling like you are ignoring your children, that they need your help and you can’t give it to them, the house is a disaster… I can’t deal with my life.”
I have said many times over that we are all in this together but not all equal, thinking many times about families living in apartments and wondering how I would have coped if this had happened a few years ago when my children were at home. A positive reflection of this crisis has been to confirm the urgent need to improve housing conditions in Spain, many homes lack ventilation and natural light which compromises comfort and health. Balconies are often small or none existent in both old and new buildings and many interior apartments have no view of the street. Also some are so small there is no room for exercise or teleworking, but this is how millions of Spaniards live, whether they rent or own their homes.
Sonia Hernández-Montaño, coordinator of health and architecture at the Catalan Architects Association, predicts that after the coronavirus crisis, “We are going to value flexibility of [space] distribution, natural light, views, the capacity for cross ventilation, acoustic factors and the existence of private exterior areas. Renting substandard homes is over and will mean that many landlords have to put in more of an effort if they want to continue making a profit”. The lockdown has brought particular attention to balconies, or the lack of them, not only do balconies provide a small amount of outdoor space, they also protect building façades from the sun and rain. According to architect Julio Touza, “The balcony is going to gain prominence in size and quality.
Day 59 – Patience and acceptance of what is, has been my greatest lesson to learn over these last months, I had previously thought of myself as being a very patient person, but that is changing as I am becoming more impatient every day! Then I question, is this because I am just not good enough at accepting what is? I am really not sure which of these scenarios I am struggling with the most, but today it is probably acceptance as I sit here desperate to go outside for a walk. After missing my early morning slot with dark clouds and light rain, the sun is now shining amongst the clouds and the air feels so fresh and clean, I just want out and am faced with struggle over acceptance and patience!
Clarity of regulations is difficult to find, yesterday evening the rain stopped and I wanted to go outside at 8pm to catch the last of the daylight. I looked outside and saw there were many older people being chaperoned taking walks, there had been talk of changing the time slots to work with the warmer months, but no clarity if this is the case now. So not wanting a fine I still cannot find official clarity today either!
As I leave to sit on my balcony to catch the last of the emerging sun, I will leave you with something I heard yesterday in an interview with Dr. Zach Bush MD discussing our health and the virus, (I now find that I didn’t save it for sharing). At the end he talked about negative emotions, sub standard living conditions and daily worries being detrimental to our health and well being. They bring us out of balance with nature and ourselves, without these burdens we would be able to fight off and live naturally with all the millions of viruses that have existed since before humanity and will evolve and live on well after. If we each had a viral test it would show that even the likes of Sars and HIV already live harmoniously within us, as recorded many times over in tests.
I am now going off subject so I will come back to his statement that when we feel love we are at peace and our bodies are in homeostasis, but we all constantly search for love inside or outside of us so mostly it is elusive. Love as we know it feels transient depending on so many circumstances that can alter its flow. We need to discover the true beauty in things, people and circumstances, even in this virus now when looked at, we can find that viruses are amazing, forming and being the basis of life and balance of nature. When we see this, we see the wonder in it and its true beauty leading to a peaceful state which is love in its purest form, this of course can be applied to all around us, in most things and people. Looking at and finding the beauty that lies within everything, we find love, which in turn brings peace and balance for homeostasis of our physical well being.
With the many thoughts I found arising from this statement of “look for the beauty to find love”, it deserves it’s own blog in the near future! Please stay safe and take precautions to protect yourself and loved ones including taking care of your mental health. Also remember to look for the beauty in all things even those you don’t like. 💜
Growing Old 