Something struck me in the past week and I just have to put pen to paper as I consider its implications…It came to mind because Ireland has had a substantial snowfall for the first time in years.  We were alerted to the upcoming ‘Storm Emma’ thanks to the excellent work of Met Eireann and their Status Red weather alert.

People were advised to stay indoors and we found ourselves snowed in for a few days.

On the 1st of March, the first day of the snow, a radio station played Christmas songs all day long and we sang along.  We had a full Christmas dinner – my first Christmas dinner in March!  We sat and talked. We went for a country walk. We played Scrabble. It was lovely… it was bonus family time… or so I thought!

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Getting back to normality!

 

Since then I have spoken to quite a few people and I have been… well, I’ll admit it… shocked with the response I’ve got.

When I asked how they found/got through the snow days the invariable response was “Oh I had cabin fever” or “I couldn’t wait to get back to work” or “I never realised getting out shopping to the supermarket was such a luxury” or “We ran out of things to talk about.”

I started to question myself!  Am I strange in that I enjoyed so much down time?  Am I unusual, being content at home spending time with my family?

Has a psychosocial expectation taken us over? Has it become the norm to have to be busy all the time?  Is it important to be seen to be rushing about and time strapped?  Has consumerism sucked everybody in to the extent that we can’t avoid the shops for more than a day or two?  Have we lost the skills of conversation? Have we lost the ability to be still?  to just ‘be?’

Please feel free to share your opinions with me, help me broaden my perspective!

Much love,

Marie xx