From inside the ‘Cocoon’ – Stepping Up

In week 7 of almost total isolation during Covid-19, it takes enormous willpower to keep going, to even get up out of bed, to go about a daily life that is often monotonous and peppered with bouts of sadness, anxiety for the future and about the safety of family members. 

One of my coping strategies in the early days was to keep doing my daily walk of about and hour, enjoying and observing nature. Then we went into ‘lockdown’, I had to stay indoors and my walk was gone!

After a few days moping and raging about lost freedom, I decided that I was NOT going to give up my walk. So each morning I lace up my trainers, put on my headphones, tune into the Ronan Collins Show on the radio, and head off for my daily walk – inside my apartment.

The trainers are most important. (Image thesilvervoice)

And this is what I do – with all doors and windows open wide, I set off on my circuit of kitchen, bedrooms, hall and the living room, a route of less than 100 paces. The aim is to keep walking for an hour and try to achieve about 6,000 steps daily.

Although I already have an app on my phone that counts steps, I downloaded another that calculates distance as well. Imagine my surprise on discovering that I am walking in excess of 4 kilometers each day!

The daily steps and kilometers walked from my phone app. (Image thesilvervoice)

To add some purpose and meaning to life inside this ‘cocoon’, I have decided to contribute €1 to the Age Action COVID-19 Hardship Fund for every kilometre I walk.

The amount of the donation to Age Action will be logged here on this post each Monday.

Hopefully this will put a spring in my step!

https://www.ageaction.ie/how-we-can-help/age-action-and-irish-red-cross-covid-19-hardship-fund

 

Context

Here in Ireland, everyone who is compromised by health issues and those aged over 70 must stay at home during the Covid-19 Pandemic with food and medication being delivered by family members or teams of volunteers. This is called ‘Cocooning’ and this is a series posts from inside the ‘cocoon’.

STAY SAFE. STAY HOME

UPDATE; I walked 32.7 kilometers in the week and was happy to make a donation of €32.70 to the Age Action Emergency COVID19 response fund on Monday morning last.

UPDATE: I walked 12.9 kilometers last week and was happy to make a donation of €12.90 to Age Action Emergency COVID19 response fund.

From inside the ‘Cocoon’ – Sorrow

Purple Hyacinth – symbols of sorrow (Image Amazon.com)

I have just had a long conversation with a friend. This is a friend of many decades, of similar age, who is also inside the ‘cocoon’ in a different part of the country. We had a long chat for over an hour, at the end of which, and out of the blue, came the revelation:

”I burst into tears without any warning and weep uncontrollably for 10 or 15 minutes – every – single -day.

For all that has been,

For a lifetime of loss – of family, of friends.

For all that we may never know’‘

I answered truthfully –

”So ….Do ….I ”

I wonder how many silent tearful ‘cocoons ‘ are there up and down the country?

I am reminded of lines by W.B Yeats in ‘The Stolen Child’

”Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you
can understand.”

Younger generations in particular and many more, will not understand.

Context

Here in Ireland, everyone who is compromised by health issues and those aged over 70 must stay at home during the Covid-19 Pandemic with food and medication being delivered by family members or teams of volunteers. This is called ‘Cocooning’ and this is a series posts from inside the cocoon.

STAY SAFE. STAY HOME

From inside the ‘Cocoon’ – Talking Heads

A big downside for those of us ‘cocooned’ in virtual solitary confinement and not living at street level, is the absence of real life faces. COVID-19 has stripped us bare, pulled us apart at the seams. Yes, there is television, but the faces on the screen are one dimensional, and they are not looking at me, they are strangers and they are not talking to me personally.

RTE weather bulletin. (Image RTE )

In my family, we are texters, WhatsApp-ers, Tweeters and e-mailers. Good friends will, and indeed do, make voice calls, and many long happy telephone conversations do take place.

But faces….. Where are the faces?

           Face to Face (Image Clipart.com)

One of the most challenging aspects of this new life, this life inside a ‘cocoon’ is the absence of a few words with others – the post office clerk, the shop assistant, the pharmacist, or complete strangers simply passing the time of day, saying a casual ‘hello’ or ‘isn’t it a lovely day?’

While I have been lamenting the loss of my freedom, the loss of my daily walk, the loss of observing nature, of watching busy lives, the biggest loss of all has been the loss of the ‘Talking Heads’ that each of us encounter during a normal day.

On Tuesday last, my Toastmasters Club, Talking Heads in East Cork, hosted a ‘Zoom’ meeting. With some 26 to 28 participants, we assembled in our own homes for some fun and interaction using the wonders of modern technology. Afterwards, I thought about how appropriate the name of my Club is – ‘Talking Heads’.

Looking at and seeing faces, exchanging words, smiling and being smiled at is good brain food. It keeps us grounded, It keeps us connected. It keeps us ‘together’ in every sense of the word, and it is essential in our lives for health and well being.

Those of us inside the ‘cocoon’ absolutely need many ‘Talking Heads’ to keep us well balanced. Physical distance yes, but we do need visuals too!

*Talking Heads Toastmasters Club is a member club of Toastmasters International located in East Cork and meets every two weeks *

STAY SAFE. STAY HOME

Here in Ireland, everyone who is compromised by health issues and those aged over 70 must stay at home, with food and medication being delivered by family members or teams of volunteers.This is called ‘Cocooning’ and this is a series of short posts from inside the cocoon.

From inside the ‘Cocoon’ – Spring

No sooner had I made the previous post than news came that my brother -in-law’s mother had died. In the midst of the relentless statistics and the names of lost loved ones, new life continues to emerge.

Spring is my favourite time of year and it was beginning to make an impact while I was still permitted a daily walk. I am so glad to have these images of lovely things still happening, of life going on, of nature unhalted, of seasons turning.

A ladybird explores a Dandelion. (Image thesilvervoice)

A magnificent Magnolia bursting forth (Image the silvervooce)

The queen of our Spring… beautiful wild Primroses (Image Thesilvervoice)

I love this poem by the 18th Century poet, John Clare (1793-1864)

To a Primrose

Welcome, pale primrose, starting up between
Dead matted leaves of oak and ash, that strew
The every lawn, the wood, and spinney through,
‘Mid creeping moss and ivy’s darker green!
How much thy presence beautifies the ground!
How sweet thy modest, unaffected pride
Glows on the sunny bank and wood’s warm side!
And where thy fairy flowers in groups are found
The schoolboy roams enchantedly along,
Plucking the fairest with a rude delight,
While the meek shepherd stops his simple song,
To gaze a moment on the pleasing sight,
O’erjoyed to see the flowers that truly bring
The welcome news of sweet returning Spring.

Context

Here in Ireland, everyone who is compromised by health issues and those aged over 70 must stay at home during the Covid-19 Pandemic with food and medication being delivered by family members or teams of volunteers. This is called ‘Cocooning’ and this is a series posts from inside the cocoon.

STAY SAFE. STAY HOME

From inside the ‘Cocoon’ – Dying

Padraig Byrne peers into the hospital room where his brother Francis had just died. (Copyright Padraig Byrne)

This image will almost certainly become an iconic one. Here is Padraig Byrne, looking into the hospital room where his brother Francis had just died. Unable to be by his dying brother’s bedside, Padraig was desperate to be near him at this time and seized the opportunity to get as near as possible by pulling up a park bench and being able to see into the room where his brother lay.

Who would have thought that people are dying alone in hospitals, with family members unable to be there?

Such is the impact of the Covis-19 lockdown.

In Ireland, we ‘do’ death, dying and funerals very well, with huge rituals, crowds of people, plates of sandwiches, prayers, handshakes, all-night sittings at wakes, more plates of sandwiches and tea, more handshakes. Often unknown nooks and crannies of the life of the deceased are revealed by all who knew them, and often, that there are surprises that many knew nothing about. But these comforting rituals, like everything else during this crisis, has been turned on its head.

Now funerals are sadder and lonelier events with no church service and only a handful of mourners permitted in the cemetery.

No rituals

No comfort

No sandwiches

No handshakes and

No hugs.

Such hard and challenging times for all who are the bereaved.

 

And that includes a dear friend who lost her beautiful mother just a week ago. We could not stand with her when we should have been travelling from all over the country to share in her grief with our hugs, handshakes and words of sympathy.

It has happened and continues to happen all over the world, already more than half a million times, and counting.

We grieve for all of those who have been lost and for all those left behind. And this is for them.

• Here in Ireland, everyone who is compromised by health issues and those aged over 70 must stay at home, with food and medication being delivered by family members or teams of volunteers.
• This is called ‘Cocooning’ and this will be a series of short posts from inside the cocoon.