Careful Thinking

Misery loves company.

I have been blogging daily throughout this Coronavirus crisis. I have tried to keep a good perspective and stay positive. I’m happy to acknowledge the difficulties but I generally feel it’s best not to dwell too much on the worries. Yesterday, I gave into misery and wrote my depressed thoughts as a glorious list. People loved it. Twice as many people read it, as normally would. Friends all commented on Facebook, where I posted it. It was nice. I felt loved and supported but although the temptation to keep writing misery for the company is there I’m going to avoid it.

It would be too easy to get stuck in a negative thought pattern.

I think that has happened in this country. A study at Cambridge University has shown that the UK has the highest level of fear about the virus. read It here - it’s got pretty graphs .This is going to be a bigger challenge for our government than anyone could have anticipated because while people remain stuck with the fear they won’t be able to return to normal.

When I woke up yesterday, even after I’d written my list, I was still a bit of a grump. I felt sorry for my family, so before anyone said it I went and got lost.

There’s nothing better than a walk where your intention is to ‘go and get lost’.

I took my camera, thinking that I’d photograph blue things. I intended to treat like with like. I had the blues, so I thought I’d see the blues. I took one photo of a little blue flower and the camera ran out of battery.
‘Damn,’ I thought, ‘I’ll probably see loads of brilliant things now.’

I did: a pair of cuckoos, red kites and a little hare jumped out of the field and stared at me for just long enough to get my phone out but not long enough to take the picture.

‘Oh, why am I so incompetent with my phone?’ I said aloud to myself, startling a pheasant from the hedge.

Then I heard a nightingale and another bird I didn’t recognise. I set my phone to video and pressed play, thinking I would have proof of the nightingale and be able to find out what the other song was.
I had pre-empted my incompetence with my thought and took a nice photo of my feet. The red kites were proved with a nice photo of blue sky.

As I walked, I was thinking about how it would be best not to get stuck with depressing thoughts. If I could make all of those things go wrong then just think what I could do with the things on my list.
So, I thought about my garden.

‘What I need is some old step ladders to put pots on. Then I’d be able to fit more in,’ I said to the ladybird, I’d stopped to talk to on the lilac bush. She didn’t reply. They can be very standoffish, ladybirds.

Then I saw something in the distance.

Yes, you are right. It’s an old broken stepladder. Perfect for the garden.

I didn’t carry it home but I was reminded to practice careful thinking.