Day 20 – Reflections on Lock-Down

All photos (and videos) I post on my blog are taken on the day of the blog.  I usually take a lot of photos each day, trying to capture the light and Honey in a good ‘pose’.  I then spend ages sifting through them all, picking the ones I like the most to share in my blog.

You may have noticed, the photo that I post at the top of every blog always has a photo of Honey the Dog in it.

However, today I didn’t get to go on a long walk or run and didn’t take many photos.  The only photo I had with Honey the Dog in it, was this one.  Still a great photo to show you Honey the Dogs favourite lockdown shop!

For those who read my blog yesterday, you will have heard all about Easter Greens.  The vegan shop that I go to most days now and Honey often gets a vegan treat.  Izzy (the woman on the left of the photo in the door way) gets super excited to see Honey!  Honey gets super excited to see her!  And if lucky, she gets a vegan treat!

I usually buy a bottle of Kombucha in the shop.  They have a great range of different types and brands (from what I can tell, without actually being able to ‘browse’!).

At the start of lock-down I decided not to drink alcohol throughout.  I guess, mainly because I find alcohol drains my energy for a few days afterwards.  But also, because I find a disconnection from the world and with myself for a good number of days afterwards.  As I want to be as present as possible during this lock-down, I decided not to drink any alcohol.  Instead I have a bottle of Kombucha.

The reason we didn’t go for our long walk today, was due to not having enough time!  My day has pretty much consisted of a series of Zoom calls.  Before I knew it, it was 4pm.  I had an Amazon delivery arriving, between 4pm and 6pm for a new cord to charge my phone/tablet.  It is on the point of breaking and the only one I had.  As I learnt last week, during lockdown Amazon does not leave parcels with neighbours.  So generally if you want to get the parcel you need to wait until it is delivered.

It finally arrived at 5.35pm, just in time to head up the road to Easter Greens before it shut at 6pm.

If you live in Edinburgh and especially Leith area, I would highly recommended using this shop.  There is hardly ever a queue, the staff are super friendly and not only does it have all your vegan goodies, they also has bread and are a grocers.  Providing a ‘click and collect’ service for all your fruit and veg.  And you don’t need to be a vegan – I’m not 🙂

On the way home, Honey stopped outside the ‘Ear Shop‘ on the hope that it was open  Sadly it has been shut for a couple of weeks now!  She must be missing her pigs ear and the ear man!

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We did get a lunchtime walk in the local area.  Which was actually really enjoyable.  We bumped into quite a few people I know and had a social distance chat.  We also came across Miles and Lily (as featured in blogs earlier this week), who were doing their daily exercise in Montgomery Street Park.  It was great to connect with them for a while, before heading on our way.

Again, I found myself looking at trees and birds flying, which seemed to fly so freely.  Although, in flocks, perhaps not! 😉 – maybe birds feel tied to their flock, some wishing to break free but cannot?

It reminds me of the book Johnathan Livingtson Seagul by Richard Bach.  If you haven’t read this book, I would highly recommend it and can be read in a few hours.  This beautiful book tells of the life of Johnathan Livingston Seagul, who is not interested in living the life of a seagul, tied to the flock trying to get scraps of fish.  Instead he wants to learn to fly, which no other seagul has even done.

So perhaps, although birds seem so majestic in their flight, they have no freedom either.  Perhaps we are all trapped?

These two videos I took today and put on YouTube

 

 

As usual, within 2 minutes of loading them up on YouTube, my follower Tom posted a comment (about the shorter, second video) “cool video keep up the amazing work”.  

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This morning in my Meditation Group, one of the members Christa talked of an Easter Message that she had heard this morning.  It was from a priest in New Zealand.  She explained that social distancing in New Zealand is described as living in a “bubble”.  In the Easter Message the priest made reference to the bubbles, flying around, with the light refracting off them.

This analogy has stuck with me all day.  I love the idea, that instead of seeing us all stuck in our homes, hidden from each other (except virtually) that in fact we are each living in a bubble, floating around amongst each other.  We can see each other in each of our bubbles, just can’t get close.  Creating a beautiful image as the light refracts through us all.

Last week Christa shared a story being on her daily lockdown walk, in a park in Edinburgh (Gypsy Brae), when she saw a deer.  Only about 5 metres away (2.5 times our social distance).  How wonderful that must have felt to see nature and wildlife beginning to venture into the city parks, now that no one is about!

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Continuing on a New Zealand theme – I saw this on Facebook, an advert put out by the Wellington New Zealand Police.  You’ll see at the start that the police officer makes reference to the ‘bubbles‘.

 

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Tomorrow, is Day 21 of lockdown, the day Boris Johnson said he / the government would review the lockdown.  We’ve heard in the news that this will not happen until later in the week, once there has been Scientific Research provided.  However, as it is Day 21, I plan to re-read all my blogs so far and pick out the themes and share with you tomorrow.

So looking forward to writing my blog tomorrow.

Happy Easter to you all!

Jim xx

 

P.S. Forgot to include, the login details for next weeks Chi Gong (13th April to 17th April 2020).

See details below!