It is a normal human reaction in times of stress to experience self doubt, anger, and frustration. We find ourselves doubting what we know and who we follow, and what we believe in. Many if you will have experienced situations like this before in times of war, terrorism, oppression, financial collapse or serious illness. And as in all of these situations people learn, caring for others and being cared for is what gets us through and allows us to tolerate the hardship.
During the good times it’s too easy to become insular and detached from our communities.
In time like these our words and our actions can have tremendous effects on those around us, be they our children, neighbours, store clerk or workmate. We can lift them up and relieve their burden or we can depress and extinguish any flame of hope they have. Just like viruses our influence is infectious both positive and negative.
So please in this season of good will choose carefully our words and actions and be guided not by our needs but by the needs of those around us.
I just wanted to publicly thank our staff for embracing this philosophy. They work cheerfully, tirelessly for long hours, wearing protective devices, repeating tedious covid checks, dealing with sometimes hostile individuals, sanitizing and sterilizing endlessly on top of the myriad of other tasks they always did in the time before… .
So thank you again, you are what makes us possible.