Life in the Time of …Tolerance

Jocelyn Broderick

The Rat Race

It’s been a week of being home day and night with my two sons and my man. Don’t think I have ever been at home this long, without popping out to the shops; rushing to endless meetings; trying to finish documents and corporate speeches; invoicing and following up payments, doing endless, endless admin, before getting home late and facing the kitchen on my night to cook. And ending up alone in the kitchen after supper, because I have my own special version of clean and won’t go to bed until the kitchen is spotless. My bad…or good. You choose.

Adrift in a sea of men

I was so irritated yesterday as I hung the washing; cleaned the kitchen for the umpteenth time (it’s me in a sea of men at home). This, all while my man worked in his office and my two sons were holed up in their respective rooms, and I realised that I have to let go of control here. Life in the time of Corona means TOLERANCE. It’s give and take. It’s patience. Its people before things. That’s what really matters.

Life in the time of Corona

Later my 16 year old son, without being asked to, got out the broom and vacuum cleaner and tackled the house; we all took washing off the line together; my eldest son made supper and washed the dishes; we cleaned up after supper together and, along with the rest of the staff from my eldest’s work in in New Haven, USA, wished his work colleague happy birthday in California. I checked up on friends around South Africa, Australia and New York.

And then we shared family time and watched some TV together. Board game night is coming up. I can’t remember when last we had the time to do that!

My stress levels are dropping; my screen-time is almost nil; my priorities are becoming more focused; I’m less prone to losing my rag ‘cause I’m exhausted from a long day. I am really connecting with the people who really matter. I’m taking things slower. I’m practicing tolerance every day.

We have been given this incredible gift of three weeks to escape from the rat race; to breathe and remember to be in our gardens in nature; to have enough time to look our families in the face and BE. We have been given the opportunity to lower carbon emissions – our cars lie silenced in the driveways; to spend carefully and only buy what we truly need; to engage fully and enjoy the time to do so. Our world will be forever changed. This is our opportunity to change the way we engage and really focus on what is important in our lives. It’s up to us to ‘be the change we want to see in this world’. No-one else can do it.