Claire’s Blog
The 2020 Ambush
Dealing with Disappointment
What if I said 1 January 2021 was the first New Year’s day – in my entire life – that I woke up with a sense of apprehension and not excited anticipation? I’ll bet my negative Covid test that I was not alone. Instead of great expectations, there were great disappointments that New Year’s Eve could not have swallowed up, with or without festivities. My world is not what I thought it would be only a year ago. For many the deep grief of losing loved ones, the anxiety of a financial year of drought and the fatigue of the new normal that the COVID era has imposed upon us, has left us with not much
hope, excitement or energy for 2021.
On the upside, 2020 gave me some gifts. I gained so much from the experience of working and schooling from home – having my family around me most of the time was glorious! Many old traditions re-emerged, thanks to COVID boredom, like board games and long discussions around the dinner table, video calls with friends and zoom catch up times with family. In retrospect there has been a reigniting of values and things true to human nature over the last year, like our undeniable need for each other.
However, the nagging thought that my kids haven’t seen much of their friends, outside of a very short time at school, or the fact that our 4 year old boys are building sanitisers out of Lego instead of cars and super heroes, brings a sense of gloom. For many new moms, you were alone for most of your baby’s first few days. One of my closest friends had a baby during lockdown and we still have not met him. Loneliness has become a monster for many, and fear a master. Masks and social distancing, online learning and no socialising have all contributed to a mountain of despair. If ever disappointment had an opportunity to
sink my ship, perhaps it is now!
History has proven how amazing the human race is at adapting for survival. The Renaissance began in a time when humanity was faced with many different diseases and plagues that ravaged their families. The average life expectancy during Medieval times was 35! There were hospitals only for palliative care and schools weren’t even a thing. Out of these desperate times, monasteries started hospitals and schools were born.
Surgery became a specialised practice and vaccines were discovered! Desperation in the heart of man drove him forward and 220 years later we are all waiting with anticipation for that same great discovery to save us. So here is an opportunity disappointment has presented for a ‘renaissance’.
The use of devastation and tragedy as fuel for the raging fire of change seems common practice throughout history. Like Joan of Arc from the early 1400’s, burnt at the stake at 19 years old for fighting for the freedom of France from English rule. Or our modern-day hero, Malala Yousafzai – Nobel Peace Prize winner at age 17 – having fought for children’s rights to education and freedom from suppression.
History has been shaped and changed by children!
Joan of Arc said, “I am not afraid… I was born to do this”, and perhaps this is the motto by which our children could live, and conquer, and shape a better future for their children. If so, we need to parent them this way… let alone live this way ourselves…
