Our weekly mental health and well being spot on the site, on trying to find rainbows in these taxing times.
Hello and welcome to Wellbeing Matters, on this rather peculiar April Fool’s Day, in which the universe appears to be playing a cosmic joke on us. A week or more into isolation, and I suspect the joke is wearing thin for most of us.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. For starters, it’s my birthday. Every year, this time and place, I celebrate being an actual April Fool. And the sun always shines, even if just for ten minutes. Often through April showers.
What does the universe give us when sun shines through rain? It gives us rainbows, those brilliant reminders that the deluge will eventually stop, the sun will return and colours will be washed clean, whether they be the spring daffodils nodding their heads in a garden, or the sheen on a blackbird’s wing.
Across the UK children are drawing rainbows, pinning them to windows. Sending out little burst of refracted sunshine to anyone that walks by. These little acts of communal creativity and spirit are warm rays to a nation in fear, a reminder that as hard as it gets, there’s hope, and there’s empathy to light our shadowed days.
For my birthday, there’s only one gift I want. That’s for anyone who passes by this way to reflect a little of the sun’s rays themselves. To take a second and lift your face to the sun (it will shine again, I promise), and enjoy the warmth in the moment. To look out for those rainbows, those little gifts from bright minds, displayed across the land when you take your one walk a day, or stand at your window.
To share that brightness, create your own rainbows when dealing with the storms and thunder that are being thrown at us right now. To remember that the person on the other end of the till, the phone, the help desk, is going through the same fear, the same terror, and might be struggling to find their own refracted sunlight. Shower a little kindness.
Take the gifts that nature is giving us right now, the ones we often don’t have time to appreciate. The blackbirds squabbling in your hedges, the bloom of the honeysuckle, the catkins on the tree. Look for sunlight in your own windows. I even cleaned mine to let it shine all the brighter.
As we shelter in our walls, look to these rainbows when down. If you struggle to find them, spot other peoples. I can see three from my study window right now. Add your own, create a bridge of colour between our homes.
Fill a grey world with colour, with the promise of what will come after the storm. But most of all, for my birthday, I just hope that you all stay well, and stay safe.
Thanks, as always, for reading. Jane.
