New school year, new beginnings
Since launching Heydays, I’ve usually written a reflective post around this time of year (THIS was last year’s one), so I’m sticking with tradition with this rumination on the start of the new school year and the new beginnings it’s bringing my way.
September has emphatically arrived here in the UK with a deluge of much-needed rain (it’s chucking it down again as I write this) after a summer of record temperatures, a reminder, as if we needed one, of the challenges we and our increasingly beleaguered world are facing.
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty worn out and worn down by the incessant use of the word ‘unprecedented’, and especially with how often it’s attached to the word ‘crisis’. It’s becoming harder all the time to hang on to my naturally positive mind-set. There’s definitely a reason that the meme coined during Covid - ‘I’m getting pretty tired of living through historic events’ - is still trending.
But with the new term/new school year mindest in mind, I thought I’d share he things that are giving me a welcome prod towards positivity in the hope that they will chime with, and do the same for you.
Top of the list, as it always is, is family.
I’ve just spent a magical weekend away with my whole family (22 of us, oldest nearly 90, youngest just 4 months) celebrating my remarkable mother’s upcoming big birthday. We converged on a fabulous house we’d booked a year ago, from our various scattered homes, and settled in for three days of raucous conversation, laughter, food (OMG - SO much food) and fun. The house, which was on the bank of a river, came complete with a swimming pool, hot tub and games room which meant there was plenty to keep everyone contentedly enough amused not to feel any need to explore further than the boundaries of the large garden.
For mum it was a much anticipated and profoundly enjoyed chance to be surrounded by her family. To revel in the opportunity to talk in depth to the ones she doesn’t get to see often, and to witness and share in the intergenerational interactions of her four children, five out of the six of her grandchildren (the missing one had just started a year studying abroad in San Fransisco, but joined us at key moments on facetime), four great granddaughters, and all our partners.
For me it was a heart warming reminder of the overlapping layers of connection that come with being part of a large, loving, family (which is not, just to be clear, that don’t have more than our fair share of fall-outs. I mean, this is real family life we’re talking about, not the blinking Waltons).
As we merged and combined in different groups - swimming, playing games, drinking endless cups of tea round the kitchen and garden tables, watching football on the TV (a non-negotiable weekend activity for certain individuals), and then gathered all together round the huge communal table for our evening meals, I know I wasn’t alone in feeling a powerfully reassuring sense of comfort knowing that the bonds between us all, that stretch and intertwine across the generations, form an unbreakable web of love and support now and in the future. Whatever it holds.
You might find number two more unexpected.
It’s social media
It’s easy to despair of the power of social media for maliciousness, misinformation and harm. But can we take a moment to appreciate the potent potential it has for doing good as well.
During the long months of lockdown and isolation, social media played a vital role in keeping people connected and entertained, and bringing communities together to help and support each other. With all the difficulties we’re still facing, social media continues its role as a key channel for information, assistance and connection.
My local WhattsApp group, formed during lockdown, still buzzes with requests for recommendations and help, and unhesitating supportive responses. It’s a rallying point for our regular food bank donations, and an important channel for information and advice for neighbours hosting refugee families from Ukraine.
And just today I saw on the Instagram account of someone I follow that there’s a really useful Facebook group with lots of tips on how you can reduce your energy bills. (THIS is it, should you be interested).
I’ve always doggedly believed, in spite of what we read and hear relentlessly in the media, that there’s more good than bad in the world. And I steadfastly hold on to the same view about social media.
Lastly, the chance to keep learning
Skill development was a necessary and key component of my professional development when I was working full time. Since leaving my job as editor of Woman’s Weekly, I’ve learnt how to run and maintain a website, how to work all the platforms involved in sending out the Heydays newsletter (it’s full of money and eco-saving tips as well as recipes, reviews, information and entertainment, so do sign up if you haven’t already), and social media posts.
My new non-work related skills have included learning bridge (its very clear that’s going to be on-going for many years, sigh), how to do upholstery (blog about that coming soon), block printing (blog about that HERE), and how to make silver jewellery (read about that HERE) and sourdough bread (that blog is HERE).
And I’m excited, and, in all honesty a little apprehensive, to report that there’s going to be a raft of new learning to be done, as I’m dipping my toe back into the world of work, albeit part time, as I take on a new role as Editorial Director at NOON, the website and community created to support, inform and inspire mid-life women by Eleanor Mills, the brilliant, award-winning former Editor of the Sunday Times Magazine.
It’s a new beginning at time that never ceases to feel like the start of a new year, however long it’s been since my girls or my own school days (a VERY long time in the latter instance). I may not have a new school bag over my shoulder, or be wearing slightly too stiff new shoes, but I feel the same mix of enthusiasm and trepidation as I did as when I started at each of my new schools. And just as hopeful that this next phase of learning and opportunity will be as happy and fulfilling as my school days were.
I’ll let you know.
There are links to lots of other posts you’ll enjoy in the body of this blog. But here are a couple more
