Yesterday in our zoom staff catch up my colleague explained that for her; life in lockdown was just like an incomplete sentence. She went on to say that so many things in the past year have reached an end but were not actually completed. It was as if they were just left hanging...  

Her example was finishing university and not having had her graduation ceremony.  My then Year 6 daughter, had spent so much time preparing for her SAT’s exam that she never sat and dreamed about her end of primary school leavers party that never happened. For many of us, Christmas was organized, plans set into place, presents bought for friends and family, and then at the last minute the rug was pulled out from underneath us and none of these things happened leaving an incomplete sentence…  

Like in the famous book series Narnia, C.S Lewis writes “It is always winter but never Christmas”. Luckily for us, we did get Christmas albeit very different from previous celebrations.  

It got me thinking about unmet expectations - something that I think we can all relate to in one way or another in this season. There is a Proverb that says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”. 

Our prime minister’s promise of schools opening feels like one of those situations currently. The D day constantly changing on a regular basis leaving our hopes dashed. 

So how do we handle situations where we have no hope?  

You cannot control your circumstances, but you can control how you react to them.  I read this quote by Dr Caroline Leaf that said, “A negative mind will never give you a positive life.” She went on to explain that we need to find ways to accept what we can’t change and focus on the positives of what we can.  I am not making any plans for when my children go back to school but I am going to plan the heck out of our half term break as that is something that I can do something about.  

Let’s take life, for now, one day at a time, acknowledging that while we may not be able to put an ending to that sentence or add that last puzzle piece to complete the picture, we need to make an effort to make peace with the now. 

If today wasn’t great, then give tomorrow the chance to be…