News from Mr Grady
Hello Everyone!
I hope that everyone celebrating Diwali at the weekend had the chance in one way or another to safely catch up with relatives, and that the celebration was a warm and pleasant one.
I am sure we all have family members we have not been able to talk to or see quite as much as we would like in the last few months, and it is those calendar dates and celebrations such as Diwali where sometimes the restrictions on our lives are bought into focus a little more.
But what I’ve noticed with my own family is that I actually value the time I spend talking to them just a little more, because it now feels that little bit more precious. We are all told, in all sorts of ways to be “grateful for what we have” and that’s sometimes very difficult to do in the fast-paced, “always looking to have more” society we can sometimes find ourselves in. In the past few months though, I’ve been grateful for the phone-calls I have with my parents, or the online chats I’ve had with friends, far more than when I could have met or spoken to them at any time.
The 20 minutes chat that I now have a couple of times a week with family and friends somehow feels more connected, as we all have a mutually shared experience upon which to draw. Yes, our lives still have all sorts of differences, but the restrictions we all have mean that there is a real mutual understanding and recognition of the challenges we encounter in even the smallest daily tasks.
I can’t be the only one to stamp crossly back to the house, having gone out to the shops without my mask, or to glare in a passive-aggressive way at someone in the supermarket who I feel has impinged on my “invisible 2 metre circle of safety,” and I know this, because when I talk to family and friends we now all have the same shared experiences of these tiny details through which to empathise.
Of course, prior to 2020, we all had similar experiences too, that we could have empathised about, but without the restrictions that now make us grateful for even the smallest of things, perhaps we didn’t have time to stop and reflect on them quite as much, and perhaps, as we move onwards from this year into the hope of a new year, we can take some of that new-found empathy and understanding into our lives with us.
Stay well and safe everyone,
Mr Grady
Extended home study for Year 13:
Christmas dinners with be served in the main canteen on the following dates-
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