Wow…. What a month we are having! Actually, scrap that… what a year we are having here in Australia!
As if we hadn’t had our fair share of stress and anxiety with the drought, then the Bushfire season and now this Covid-19 pandemic, all of which have been so profound they have been once in 100-year events!
I don’t know about the rest of you guys out there, but some days it feels like the blows keep coming! Some days you just want to pull the covers up over your head and stay there where it’s warm and safe! It is so hard to keep going, stay positive and see the silver lining when you feel that life just keeps throwing these curve balls at you, one after the other! It’s so strange to think that just two weeks ago we were all happily going about our lives, aware of this evolving virus, but oblivious to the fact that we here in Australia were about to feel its wrath! Most people wouldn’t have believed you if you told them that it would come to fisty cuffs in the supermarket over toilet paper and flour or that our kids are facing the probability of being home schooled for the next 3-6 months! The world as we know it has changed for the foreseeable future and its been really hard for us humans, who like to control everything, to accept that and begin to make a plan for how our lives and businesses might look going forward.
In these times of uncertainty, we are all needing to change and adjust the way we run our businesses and homes. We need to find a way to continue to operate and survive this testing time together. With all our new “norms” of isolation and social distancing, we have to adjust, re-set and continue to move forward. For most of us, it’s not an option to just say “tools down” and give up!
It has been so refreshing to watch communities come together again to support each other and their local businesses. Here in Bendigo a wonderful person has started a Facebook group focused around supporting local businesses to survive this pandemic; by advertising how they intend to change their services and let people know what they have on offer. Another friend of ours has started a fun event around town focused on taking the kids out for a walk to spot teddy bears placed in people’s windows; she has called it Bendigo Bear Hunt. You can almost hear the sighs of relief in the parents as they post photos of their bears for kids to hunt. Then there is our wonderful customers, friends and family who have liked, shared and promoted our new Drive Through Cellar Door to help spread the word. What a truly magnificent world we live in! For a moment there, when the fear of the unknown set in, we panicked and went a little crazy, like kids in a candy store… but alas, we are starting to find our way back to our caring, giving, supportive ways. We need each other, especially when we feel so isolated from our daily comings and goings. Our kids need to see some of that anxiety wash over us, they need to see that although this is truly a tough time, we can also show love, compassion and kindness to others. That we are all in the same boat. We are all feeling the pinch in one form or another, but we are all trying our best to push on and take care of each other.
When it would be so easy to give up, we refuse to! We stop, assess, re-set and put a plan in motion. We find ways to reach out to one another and offer our services from a different perspective. This pandemic is challenging us to slow down, think and change the way we have always done things. It’s a time to reflect and breath! I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think we do that often enough in this house, and while it’s not under the best circumstances, perhaps this is the universe taking charge of an ever-evolving world that was already spinning out of control.
So, while this pandemic has sent us all reeling, and into a spin. Perhaps we need to see it through different eyes and take it as an opportunity to test ourselves to be better, stronger, more creative, more flexible. But mostly more grateful for the amazing things we have in our beautiful country, such as the ability to grow our own food and source what we need from resources that we have right here in our own backyard.
Never before has it been so obvious that we need to protect our agricultural industry from foreign investors! We need to look after our Aussie farmers and support them in tough times. If something like this happens again, we should be able to close our boarders and protect our people, with the knowledge and confidence that we have everything we need in our own paddocks and factories to sustain us while we fight whatever battle we have ahead of us.
So I say to you, heed the advice and information of those experts who are working day and night to protect us from the worst case scenario. Support your local businesses who have been turned on their heads in a matter of days and are frantically trying to work out Plan B and stay in touch with your family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues via phone, email or social media to make sure they are OK. So many people have been hit so badly by this pandemic and we need to check in with each other and make sure those around you know they are not alone and the sun will come out again!
Stay safe everyone! And if you want any wine…. You know where to come! Drive Through Cellar Door Service just for you, you don’t even get out of the car!