Counting Rainbows
In the hopefully-not-too-far-off future, when I look back on 2020, and the days of iso and homeschooling and social distancing — I’ll mostly remember the rainbows.
First, the actual ones. Because I don’t recall another season of my life so full of sweeping rainbows. And that’s saying something for this valley of bows!
But there have been many other ‘rainbows’ to emerge from this strange, stormy year too…
🌻 The unexpected blessing of having my “baby” boy returned to me from Prep. In January, I had grieved his transition to big school so hard, had marked my own graduation from the stay-at-home years with many tears. But by March, I had all my babies home with me full time. It hasn’t been idyllic — in fact, on top of our own work, it has been overwhelming and exhausting. But also, possibly the best thing to have ever been imposed upon us. Like the ultimate long, bonding road trip (we love those!)…without leaving the comforts of home.
🌻 Elation and joy, on Mother’s Day, at having my own mum under my roof once more, and within 1.5 metres. I could touch my mum! We cashed in our ‘5 allowed visitors’ for Queensland homes, and shared a home-delivered high tea from a French deli. A high tea that dragged on for many hours, loath as we were to part again.
“I have learned that the things that divide us are far less important than those that connect us.”
-Rachel Naomi Remen
🌻 Sound of my songstress daughter having her singing lessons via Zoom. Sight of my children playing LEGO every chance they can squeeze in between work. Relief of my teenager being able to “socialise” via FaceTime. Splendid crafts mastered by my artsy kiddo, from YouTube tutorials. Bounteous cuddles from my Preppie homeschooler, learning on my lap. Not-serenity of a family yoga session via Yoga with Adriene.
🌻 Loyal rumble of my robot vacuum cleaner in the background of iso life — he’s my favourite household appliance of all time, ever. His name is Rockefeller. I owe my last nerve to him.
🌻 10,000+ words I managed to put into my manuscript recently…despite having four children learning with me around the table. The effort and focus it has taken to achieve such progress under these often high-stress conditions makes me tremendously excited for everything I can accomplish with full writing days soon back to myself. I’ll never take my silent writing space for granted again.
🌻 The pleasure of running a Mother’s Day stall for our school’s home learning students, who might otherwise have missed out on picking a gift for mum. We set up our stall at the unused school bus stop, allowing children to simply jump out of mum/dad’s car and select a special present. (All within social distancing guidelines.) It’s pure heart-warmth to watch children pick out presents for Mum — makes receiving your own gifts more special too.
🌻 Rides and runs and walks and skates and creek swims and mountain climbs —which have kept us all fit and (mostly) sane through these restrictions. We’ve always been an adventurous, nature-loving family; but now we know we’re a nature-dependent, adventure-craving fam.
Life, even in the hardest times, is full of moments to savour. They will not come this way again, not in this way.
- Paula Rinehart
🌻 The books I’ve read in quarantine — from beloved old favourites like Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’, new-to-me delights such as Marian Keyes’ ‘Rachel’s Holiday’, Cara Wall’s feel-good ‘Dearly Beloved’, and domestic noir - like Louise Candlish’s ‘Our House’. As I often say: the books will get us though, they always do. To this end, my children were lucky enough to receive a giant box of books direct to their door from Scholastic for our school’s Bookclub. (See? Even coronavirus can’t get between book lovers and booksellers.)
🌻 Beautiful girlfriends who have gone, quite literally, out of their way to spend time with me — driving over or riding long distances just so we could meet up and exercise together! {Read: chat up a storm & laugh hysterically under the cover of rainforest!} I’ve never missed or needed my friends more, and I can’t wait for the shared holidays and nights out and beachfront wine & cheese platter sessions to make a comeback.
And last, but wish it had been first, because it might have saved us many weeks of stress…
🌻 We fiiiiinally got our NBN fixed. We have been dealing with chronically slow speeds and half-hourly drop outs for MONTHS. Our home internet hasn’t been able to sustain more than a single Zoom/FaceTime/video streaming user at a time, and we’ve all lost countless hours of work (& at times our marbles) due to long, frequent drop offs. We’ve had two adults trying to work, while homeschooling four kids, all of us relying on this unreliable internet service. I won’t lie, the frustration has been at times intense. But now, with a week & a half of iso left to go: WE HAVE DECENT NBN! Woo hoo!
🌻 Here’s a bonus rainbow from my Camera Roll, currently full of them…
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Reader Dearest, we are still climbing this mountain —perhaps we’ve only just started climbing it —but the rainbows are going to keep on coming…
"Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put all together that overwhelm the world."
-Desmond Tutu.
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Keep safe & take care,
xx Averil