Country Living – Seven deadly sins

For the most part I am a solitary woman – alone all day on our farm, kids at school, me belting around with my thoughts in my bubble. I have always been a chronic home baker and a keeper of a monolithic veggie garden and business affairs on my PC. On the surface perhaps my life has changed little, but like all of us it has actually changed immensely. My thought processes have suddenly taken a severe right turn at high speed. With handbrake on and thoughts of family, employees and community in mind, I must switch into positive mode, pull my big-girl socks up and get on with the business of future focus. I feel an urgency to wipe out any negativity, inhale and fill my lungs with the normality of life and all the comfort it brings to the people that surround me.

Never before has that quote, “You will never know what you have got until it’s gone” been so poignant. Those words that once seemed only pointed at true love, now represent our ordinary lives, their fragility and how they can change in a heartbeat. It’s a surreal feeling knowing that we must act out the abnormal in order to once again embrace our “normal”. My abnormal is merely a scorecard of my “seven deadly sins” – little life scars that I gain on my way back to my normal. One week in, and my collection kicked off with pride.

Pride: I am proud of our communities and the folk who live within them for their strength of character and resilience during this incredibly hard time. More than ever before I am proud of our farm – for its ability to produce and feed people and its sheer beauty.

Envy: Of those who had the foresight to stock up on flour, yeast and vegetable seedlings. There are a million reasons why they are smarter than me and my jealous desire to live close to a supermarket.

Gluttony: Hand-picked apples from the tree and fresh-cut rhubarb made into a lattice pie with a sweet almond crust; warm out the oven, piled high with mock cream, melting and sliding all over my plate like restless legs between satin sheets.

Sloth: Complete and utter binge watching of The Handmaids Tale even before 5pm, obliterating my own set of motivational guidelines.

Greed: Forget the toilet paper, honey, mine was soap. I have a penchant for a particular perfumed variety, and dammed if I was going without that! Guilty on all accounts of stockpiling.

Lust: Ha ha ha, gulp. I just never did find that nun’s habit in my wardrobe.

Wrath: Day five of lockdown and that moment when you realise your husband has brought himself four cartons of his favourite beer for the month and you two bottles of low-alcohol wine! Trust me when I tell you that catching that virus was the least of his problems at that point.

I guess I’m just doing what I can to regain what it was I took for granted. Through the darkness there is a beautiful light. I will leave you with this quote to think about. I’m sure you will have plenty of time – LOL.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thornton Wilder.