Comment form Harborough churches: Let's make plans in our diaries and bring our communities together

Viewpoint by Dawn O’Connell, Families Development Worker in the Harborough Anglican Team and Chair of The CUBE on Symingtons

Let’s make a plan! Some of us love having diaries full of days to look forward to. Others hate it. The anticipation of holiday dates getting closer and the excitement of knowing we will be on a beach somewhere very soon, have been absent joys over the last few months.

Diaries full of summer days out and family celebrations, whether they are pencilled in or fully booked, give us a sense of journeying. Life is moving on. We have special days to look forward to and life is good. But what has it felt like not being able to make plans? Many of us have had holidays cancelled, family occasions put on hold and even the church doors have been shut for weddings, baptisms and funerals. Young people have missed exams and proms, and we have missed saying goodbye to old friends and hello to new friends.

For some of us the experience of empty diaries is not just for lockdown. Maybe our health limits what we can do or maybe close family live far away. For others it is our mental health that keeps us from making plans for ourselves. It’s easy to think about the elderly and infirm at home but it’s also the young family struggling with tiredness and energy, the young person struggling to make sense of this strange new world and the financially insecure more worried about their next meal than their next day out.

But life is moving on. My hair is longer and even more unkempt than usual, and the grass and weeds haven’t stopped growing. My family are also expecting a baby and we have a date in November we are all looking forward to. We are planning a nursery, choosing furniture and colours and imagining a new bundle of life in our arms. Who will they look like, who will they be like? This change of perspective on the future has brought with it more than just a date to look forward to. It has reminded us that we are more than a virtual family and life goes on.

I pray that as we move out of lockdown we will remember each other and continue to be good neighbours looking out for one another, fetching groceries and having time to chat over the fence. I pray that we will find a new reality where we will be the special days in other people’s diaries and those alone will feel as much a part of our community as the rest of us.

Dawn O’Connell is Families Development Worker in the Harborough Anglican Team and Chair of The CUBE on Symingtons.

Charlotte Cooper, youth worker at The CUBE, with three local clergy – James Pickersgill, Alison Iliffe and Andy Murphy – have produced a short on-line “assembly” for year 6 school leavers. You can find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O77Dhkh0BOA