God made time for man, not man for time.

I doubt I will see times like these in my lifetime again.  To celebrate such an important liturgy in Holy Week as Good Friday outside of the church - is just one indicator of how extraordinary these times are proving.  My empty church was broadcasting live on YouTube - I didn't think I would ever see that in my life.

Otherwise, that aside, I appear to be bearing up as we come to the end of  the third week of this lock-down.  I've been taking my excess of 5 stone for 5-9km walks every day; I think it fair to suggest that I stand more chance of dying from a heart attack than I do from contracting C-19.  I've been preparing a section of the garden for paving; reading with gusto; listening to some great tunes and networking online.  I will admit, though, that there is no substitute for speaking to people face to face.  Video conferencing is better than nothing, but you do lose the dynamics involved in good banter when speaking to people in the flesh so to speak.  Prior to the lock-down, I had been meeting people in Wisbech, Peterborough, Spalding and Boston - and I do miss the company.

We are social creatures, we need human contact, but there is something that I find attractive about the time that this lock-down provides and the flexibility of how we choose to use it.   I invested 2 hrs and 41 mins watching Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps.  The film by Phillip Groning has no dialogue, not verbal anyway, but if you allow it to, "Into Great Silence" will say a great deal to you.  I gained so much from that investment in time and I seriously do wonder about the mental health of many who appear to be addicted to social media.  HMG should have considered distancing of social media interaction along with their social distancing conditions!

As you may well know, I don't take this blogging too seriously, where some provide all the connected links to previous blogs.  But some time ago, I had mentioned about the power of silence in the learning environment when we are driving training.  Silence provides space for pupils, and it allows them to breathe; it can be harmful to feel this urge to endlessly jabber.  There is not enough of that kind of thinking about learning.  Standards checks condition us into thinking we have to bombard our 45 minute assessment with as much ticky box verbals as possible.  The irony is, while we are busy doing that, we are adversely affecting our customer experience.  Top grades and unhappy pupils - cosmic.  

Stay safe everyone.