Reflections on Lockdown - New Opportunites
June Morton • August 5, 2020
During Lockdown, our Chaplains had to change the way they could help people. June Morton, Chaplain to Tesco, has shared some thoughts on how she changed her approach to Chaplaincy.
I started to visit Vivary Park in April for exercise but also for the fact that Vivary is special for me. I enjoy watching the seasons come and go each year and I find it a place where I can just sit and be still with nature.
As lockdown became part of everyday life, I fell into the way of speaking to anyone sitting alone, or even a couple sitting together. I visited the park most days and faces became familiar to me so I found it easy to share our viewpoints about the virus. Folk were happy to share their views on Covid-19 and, for those living alone, often admitting to being lonely, I made a point of looking out for them each day and calling them by their name.
When, and if, I feel it appropriate, I ask the question "Have you given thought as to why this pandemic has come about?" and receive varying replies.
I offer my own view of us not treating our Earthly Home (Mother Earth) with as much consideration as we should, myself included!! I then lead on by saying that a Higher Power might be at work in the Universe, wanting not only Nature to be given respite but, also, ourselves.
I add that lockdown has certainly given me time to make adjustments to my life and I am grateful for this. I ask if their experience of the last months has any similarity to mine. I also tell them that I am a Christian.
I keep the discussion very light-hearted and know when to say "Thank you for listening and do take care."
‘For a time, I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive’. This is a quote towards the end of HG Wells’ sci-fi novel, The War of the Worlds, published in 1898. Some elements of this book made me think about the situation we face today.
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