24 Jul 2020 , by Caroline

Dancing Through Treacle

The coronavirus pandemic has been difficult for many of us, in terms of job losses, unpredictability etc. Dealing with such changes is not easy, but we should not give up. We must ‘dance through the treacle’, and fight at our own pace, no matter how hard. 

Like a bad dream

So many of us have had so much more to deal with these past few years. For me, it’s been job losses, illness. Listing all these things make them almost feel trivial, but they are not. They were bad, scary, worrying, stressful, challenging. Sometimes it felt that every day nothing changed, nothing got better, like a bad dream that was just permanently on play.

I remember consciously thinking when the first lockdown happened that all I wanted to do was to live in my pyjamas, lie under a duvet on the sofa and eat chocolate fudge cake. Why chocolate fudge cake I don’t know but that is all I wanted to do in my heart of hearts. But I knew in reality I just couldn’t do that every day. So I decided the more I wanted to do nothing, I knew it was important to do something.

One big thing was also to never give up trying. Try to find that new job, try to pay the bills, And as important as it is to keep trying boy oh boy it is hard! More times than most it can feel like walking through treacle. More of us than ever at the moment are struggling just with getting through the day.

Walking through a lake of treacle

I try and stay so positive but if I am being honest, some days feel like walking through a lake of treacle, and everything seems so hard, yet struggle on and as exhausted as it can sometimes feel, I don’t seem to have got very far and have achieved not a lot for all my efforts. It can seem so demoralising.

But, I am wrong?

It is not the amount you achieve in a day that we should measure. It is the wading through that treacle we should acknowledge. We tried, we gave it a go. No matter how small, no matter if we didn’t get what we initially set out to get that day. The success is not what we have produced, it is that no matter what is against us, no matter how hard it is, we keep walking onwards. We keep trying. We are a success for doing just that.

Dance through the treacle together

I want to learn to change my mindset. It is ok to say today is hard. Today is frustrating, scary, a right pain. So many are struggling and it is absolutely understandable. And I think it will be surprising just how many of us are in this lake of treacle, walking, trying to make things better.

As much as these days are a struggle for so many of us, we are not alone, and we are all in this together. We are achieving simply through trying, and together let us not walk but learn to dance through the treacle together.