In the last post I pondered a new reality, that I as an over 70 year old could no longer visit my chaplaincies, Church had been closed and everything was different. Two days after that the Government of New Zealand put the whole country in Lockdown... we have to stay "within our bubble". Everybody is to stay home from work, except "essential services". We "older than 70 year olds" in particular are not to shop at the supermarket or pharmacy and there are limitations upon everybody and these are being enforced. It is working and as I write it looks like NZ has lowered the curve of Corona virus. (Covid19) Our daughter picks up our groceries which we order on line. We are fortunate in that we have had an extensive vegetable garden so we can be quite self sufficient in most things. We have been doing odd jobs around our house and acre. We have picked apples. I have had two sessions of picking blackberries. I just started on doing some repairs to the floor in my office. I have gone for walks which has been good, but I do miss the contacts with people normal life affords. Little treats like a cup of coffee (New Zealand coffee bars do the best coffee - on our trips overseas we do not enjoy the coffee.) or wandering the DIY store or having our foster daughter to visit are missed. In many ways I am enjoying not working, being truly retired. I can do uninterrupted projects. I have been producing a weekly newsletter to keep the Church people in touch with each other. It is called "Lockdown Linkup."
Throwing out
In preparation for fixing the floor in my office I decided I needed to clean out a heap of books. Once again I went through my book cases trying to be very strong in discarding as many books as I could. I still have lots of books, but I managed to pack up four boxes of books and stash them in our sleep out. There is an annual second hand book sale in our city, which has been postponed this year because of the virus, but next year they will benefit from my books. Yesterday was a rainy day so I have concentrated on other stuff to throw out. I have had folders of my university, theological college and Social Work training notes and assignments. So today they have been all tipped into the recycle bin. It is always a bit of a sad thing. Once I got reading the assignments and the notes on the side, they brought back many memories. I left plumbing in 1971 and went to University to see if I could study. Then we left Dunedin and New Zealand to do four years of theological/ministry training in Melbourne. Then after three ministries, in 1994 I went half time at the church and did a community and social work course. As well as these there have been seminars, chaplaincy training and ongoing professional training from which there has been heaps of notes. Today I threw these out. These track the course of important parts of my life journey. I have moved on in my understandings and grown heaps, but these times of learning have prompted ongoing times of growth. I'll not miss the notes, I have very seldom referred to them down the years. But it was nice to keep them.
Worldwide Pandemic
We are deeply aware that just about every country in the world is having to cope with this Covid19. We are fortunate to be an island nation out on the edge of the world. We could easily shut our borders and/or control the people coming or going. We have a reasonable public health system and we learned from others' experience before the virus began to hit us hard. We are hoping it will be OK for us. So far we have had only one death and the powers that be have strict rules by which we have to live. We ache for countries where it has hit hard. There has been enough suffering here for us to be fearful, on edge and empathetic with other countries. Even so on social media and in other ways, the kiwi sense of humour has helped. Many of us are placing bears in our front windows and passing children hunt for them One elderly friend actually made one just for the occasion. Another acquaintance is an opera singer, so she stood on her balcony and gave neighbours a concert. We are half way through our lockdown period and you sense that people are getting a bit frustrated. I hope we stay the course and that it works well.
Anyway, to my readers, I wish you well as you cope with this very different and difficult world we live in. Take care. Kia Kaha (Maori words for "stay strong" - many Maori words are becoming just a part of our language now, which is great.)
Some photos of stuff I have been doing in lockdown....
 |
| Harvesting big beautiful potatoes |
 |
| Sharpening chisels - A carpenter mate told me that in the building firm he served his apprenticeship with, they reserved a half hour every Friday to sharpen their tools. So I used lockdown to sharpen my chisels. It is actually a good lesson in life. You need time to stop and "sharpen your chisels". |
 |
| Picked apples - These came from one tree. We use them as cooking apples. Apple puddings, apple jelly etc. We have given a few away. We have more trees to pick pick apples from. |
 |
| We used to have goats to keep blackberries under control, but now we don't. I have been attacking the bushes, but also harvesting blackberry. Blackberry and apple jelly - beautiful. |
 |
| Three of four boxes of books.... but I still keep reading and buying books? |
 |
| This is the remains of my old desk. It has been my workstation for at least 43 years... so many sermons, lessons, articles and plans have been hammered out on this desk. |
 |
| We have an old house at least 135 years old, that was a cottage which has had bits added to it over the years. It is not well built and the floor of my study had been sinking for many years. Today I pulled it to bits and began repairs. |
 |
| I discovered somebody at one time before we purchased the house had tried to repair the rotten floor frames. They did not do it well. By tomorrow night I'll have it repaired and back together. Today's building inspectors would have the house pulled down! A house today in NZ would never be built so low to the ground. |
No comments:
Post a Comment