Lockdown Conversations
Reflecting on what we have learnt about resilience during lockdown.
Beth mAcdonald is based in the Philippines and still in Lockdown
Lockdown has given me chance to practice being compassionate with myself and finding small and continuous ways to express my gratitude for what I have. I am more conscious of giving myself breaks and paying attention to the signals of fatigue from my body. I every few days I find a way to make a gift to someone; a few dollars to the Black Lives Matter movement in the US; pesos for groceries for one of our carpenters and his family; fresh vegetables from our garden. Each time I make a gift I make a point to reflect on how much I have to counterbalance my feelings of being constrained.
How has nature played a part in helping me be resilient in this time ?
The only access to nature I have is in the “backyard” where we have developed a permaculture garden on two empty lots. I make a practice of feeling the animals and take photographs to connect with my sense of beauty and curiosity about the world(as I would normally do traveling the world).
I am also mindful of the needs of the other people in my household and deliberately create learning challenges for each of them so that they continue to experience a sense of personal growth and development. This ranges from learning to rebalance an aquaponics system to studying online(new experience) about how to grow vanilla to reimagining the graphics to increase the clarity of a message. While it may benefit them, I guess it mostly benefits me, keeping me focused on the needs of others instead of my own minor but often aggravating trials.
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