Q is for questions

It's also for "Quite hopeful that you have some for me!"  This post is the first of two, I hope.  The second will be Q2 later in the week.  

(Marcia, yours will be on the R post.)

P is for Post Pandemic

 For a long time I was writing about adjusting to lockdowns or coping with entering everyday life again.  I am very aware that for many the effects of covid are still all too present but I'm writing about me and my life.  So far I haven't caught the virus, but I have been affected by it.  

For me the beginning of the end of the pandemic was 11th February 2021, the day I had my first vaccination.  As I was leaving the vaccination centre I remarked to one of the stewards that it felt more like a party than a health appointment.  "Everybody says that" was her reply.

Two years in, this is "the new normal" but like all normals it will evolve as I change and society changes.  Personally I sailed through lockdowns and sorted out a lot in terms of reprioritising, decluttering, reorganising and so on.  

So, what's changed?  I think I have sorted my life out quite a bit.  That's not just decluttering stuff, it's working out more of what I really want to do.  I went for lunch this week with a friend I hadn't seen for nearly four years and I want to keep that friendship going but there are other things I have ditched.  My Trefoil Guild has folded and I have decided that I want to go to the daytime Women's Institute only.  I learnt quite a few computer skills, including Zoom and Facetime, and those are still a big part of my life.  I have done more sewing and knitting but less paper craft.  

I think the biggest change though is that I have developed a new reslience.  I have more confidence in my ability to face the future with equanimity.  

(my "Q" post will be about questions.  I may be asking you some, but are there any you would like to ask me?  I don't guarantee I will answer but I'll do my best!)

O is for Older Than I Was

 I'm 71 so there is no denying that I am older than I was.  But no matter how old you are, you are older than you were.

There are things which I can't do now which I could do when I was sixty one, but I don't want to get to eighty one regretting that I didn't celebrate the the things I could do when I was seventy one but can do no longer.  I still drive, have days out, manage my finances, very occasionally wear heeled shoes, dance around the kitchen, and terrorise people when I am on my trundle truck.  One day some or all of those things will no longer be possible but they are fun as long as they last.    

There are things which are even better as I get older.  I have more time to make things, to linger over a coffee in the garden, to experiment with recipes.  I am happier to say"no" to things I don't want to do, I can savour the things I do want to do.  and I have lots of time each day to sit and relax knowing God is with me.