Appreciation
After publishing last week's blog, and with a slightly clearer idea of the path we should be walking on, the dogs - with Alastair and I in tow - headed back up onto the moors. The initial climb is steep but it doesn't take long to leave civilisation behind and find yourself looking down on the mills and rows of houses that make up the local landscape, steeped in the heritage of our industrial past. Nor does it take long to lose sight of the town as you follow the rocky path through the heather. Occasionally we pass an old stone bridge and I can't help but wonder about the feet and hooves that have crossed there over time. There is a rugged romanticism about the place on a dry day like this, yet at the same time a sense of foreboding that never quite leaves you as you start to realise just how much you are at the mercy of the elements and how bleak it would be if the weather was less favourable.
Awash with feelings of how fortunate I am to have all this within a half hours drive of home and to live in a country where access to the great outdoors exists, my thoughts then went to Mountain Rescue. Perhaps more at the forefront of my mind after meeting my friend and her colleagues on a training exercise the previous weekend, really it is because of them that I have the freedom to explore. I take their presence for granted when I shouldn't and I owe them a debt of gratitude. So thank you Emily and team for giving of your own time and volunteering to do this. Thankfully I have never had to call on your services, but actually I use them every time I step off the beaten track, safe in the knowledge that help is but a phone call away, and at that point you'll drop whatever you're doing to put my rescue first.
Little did I know as I was mulling this over last Friday that questioning what I rarely thought about would become a prominent theme for the week. Our beautiful rescue dog, Nash, has recently decided that settling down at 8 o'clock in the evening for a couple of hours whilst we watch the TV isn't for him. It's a small thing, but has had a big impact - not least on our opportunity to binge watch 'Mrs America' the story of the fight for sex equality, told from both sides and featuring the somewhat fabulous Cate Blanchett. Compelling but not always easy watching I am gaining a deeper understanding of those women who took it upon themselves to fight for the rights I have grown up assuming are mine and am gaining a growing appreciation of the work still to be done, a nudge to remind me that the 'Each for Equal' campaign of International Women's Day all the way back at the beginning of March, really isn't about one day, that the fight is ongoing and I need to find a way to lend my weight to the cause.
Then, as I sat trying to watch with a mind that was already racing, came the unexpected news that the lockdown freedoms we had started to enjoy were been rescinded in one ill mannered tweet from the Health Secretary. Putting the blame on us, inflaming suspicion and division, our right to meet with friends in our house or garden was removed with effect from midnight, less than three hours away. Whoosh. Plans immediately cancelled, movements curtailed, anger at the method of delivery not altering the outcome. The last lockdown was for all of us - in it together - this time it's different, we've been selected, if not quite singled out, a small glimpse into the lives of those who have had their freedom curtailed, except that I can see this is for our greater good, even if I don't like it much.
What is harder to see is why this morning a dog would eschew four dog beds and a blanket on the lawn in favour of the dining table, unless perhaps to remind me - never to take anything for granted.
Comments
Post a Comment