Doing our bit during Corona

Last week, when the government put out a request for volunteers, I felt helpless and frustrated.  I desperately wanted to do my bit (sounds like wartime rhetoric) but with two young ones in tow had no idea how.   Then on a whim I contacted the Sandbanks Community Group set up by the fantastic David Morely and offered a free online interactive class to any residents.

I had no idea the email had even gone out and next thing I was inundated with emails and calls.  No one ever calls me these days, at least not by normal telephone call and from a landline number no less.  Turns out 70 and 80year olds still go for the traditional means of communication.  It was wonderful, I got to hear peoples stories.  People I wouldn’t ever have come into contact with otherwise. And boy did they want to chat. 

One 80year old (who incidentally had some fantastic stories to tell) told me she was living for the foreseeable in total isolation in her flat.  She told me she just got to look out of the window at her view of Sandbanks, but that she was one of the lucky ones. She also told me that she put music on every day and did some dancing in the flat but that due to her age most of my yoga class would have to be done from a chair.  She was extremely anxious not to “hold the class back” but I reassured her that this was certainly not a dynamic practice and she was exactly the person I was aiming this class at so she simply had to join. Inside I was wondering how an 80 year old who had never heard of Zoom was going to download it on her own and then login to class at a designated time but after numerous back and forths she managed it and she did the class, without a single use of a chair and all in all was an absolute inspiration.

Another 70 year old called me from her landline (of course) asking to join the class and then the next day called again to say that because of her husband being disabled and her being his sole carer she thought it would be too much to take 45 minutes out.  I suggested that she simply login and even if she was just there for the first 10 minutes breathwork it might be beneficial to her and then she could leave the class or stay if she felt her husband was ok.   To my amazement she joined and saw the whole class through.  It made me wonder how many small pleasures she denied herself on a daily basis to be a doting carer.  I was truly humbled.

Before doing this class I could never imagine these peoples stories, their hardships and loneliness.  People are experiencing all kinds of different challenges right now.  Normally I shun the internet telling myself that face to face is better and the feeling of connection to people is never the same. I have however, purely as a result of using the internet, just met and felt closer to people that live around the corner from me who I would otherwise probably never spoken to let alone done a yoga class with.  I stand corrected, in times like these, we are forever indebted to technology’s power to connect.