Rediscovering Your Joy In The Slowdown

My pre lockdown routine looked something like this.

The alarm goes off.

Snooze.

Repeat for half an hour. Dash out of bed and downstairs to turn on the kettle. Shower as quickly as possible to keep the heat in the pot. Waste some household energy by boiling the kettle again, but at least I’d save a good 30seconds on the tea making part of my day.

Check email to make sure that nothing came in the night before that didn’t need to be replied to immediately on pain of my life falling apart. Check all social channels in case a life-altering follow on Twitter had emerged; maybe this was the morning that somebody recognised my greatness.

Nope.

Coffee time, the same thing. I boil the kettle twice so I could be a saving savvy entrepreneur and squeeze another meaningful task in between the water heating up and being ready.

I find no time to read, no time to reflect, not any time to chat in the kitchen, must do as many things as possible, must stay busy, because?

Because?

Because?

There is no because. This frantic schedule served no other purpose than to convince me that I was busy. God knows how many days and weeks I passed in this way. All that time, I was…