There is a lot of discontent evident across Canada just now.
Pandemic fatigue has erupted.
It seems like an appropriate time to take stock and reflect for a few moments on my own experiences through this pandemic.
I understand that fatigue - I too am often tired of constraints and restrictions and imposing them at school and home - even with the very best of intentions - has been exhausting.
I am frustrated with not seeing my family and friends like I used to, and with restricting all the little things - and the big things like travel - that we were so used to doing whenever we chose.
I am frustrated with schools not being open to families, with teaching and learning not looking and sounding the way I believe it works best for children.
I am saddened and frustrated that so many families lost loved ones sooner than they might have in a COVID-free world - having experienced unexpected and early loss of loved ones far too often in my own life, it is heartbreaking to consider the depth of pain these losses have caused over the past two years, and the bright lights of human life that have been prematurely shortened and lost to the world.
I am frustrated with the deferred surgeries and medical procedures that have resulted from an over-taxed medical system that simply couldn't manage both COVID patients and other patients at the same time.
I had no idea when the pandemic began that it would go on this long either - I have never lived through a pandemic before.
But I am also grateful. Grateful that I have been guided carefully through this situation by a school board that demonstrates repeatedly they care about children and about learning.
That our community has consistently supported our efforts to both keep children safe and learning continuing to the very best of the school's ability.
I am grateful for vaccines that have kept so many of us safe and will continue to do so - I was born part of the 'vaccination generation' and I have confidence in medical breakthroughs - there have been so many over the decades that have kept my family and friends safe!
I am grateful for a government that had the courage to recognize potential harm and strive to keep all it's citizens as safe as possible - there have been rules but also funding for vaccination research, to keep people surviving when jobs disappeared, for tests and vaccinations and medical equipment and personnel to ensure those who did become ill were cared for - especially during the previous waves that were so virulent.
I am grateful for free healthcare and frontline workers who continue to strive to keep our hospitals open and available to help.
And for the Canadians who have kept our grocery stores filled, our online orders delivered (especially books!) and our heat and electricity managed.
I am grateful our family has stayed healthy and safe.
And I am grateful for everyone who was willing to wear masks, get vaccinations and follow public health guidelines to reduce the impact of COVID around the world - to keep themselves protected but also to boost the health and safety of others. It was a choice and I am grateful we had opportunities to make choices that could help others as well as ourselves.
More recently vaccinations became an expectation, temporarily, to stay employed in many cases (including mine), also to to safeguard public health. And I am grateful, as a public employee, for all the people who have been willing to continue to keep our schools as safe as possible, as well as many other public spaces.
And I am so grateful I have been able to come to our beautiful school everyday, work with dedicated, deeply caring staff who persevered through so many changes to ensure learning happened in a joyous way each and every day with our curious, engaged, amazing learners.
Perhaps I am most grateful to have had the opportunity to see our country come together - initially anyway - reaching out to each other, sharing things like window art and sidewalk chalk pictures or words of encouragement, baking bread and sharing photos on social media, visiting virtually, working from home and trying to support each other through the initial lockdowns with words of encouragement. This was a shared experience such as I have never experienced before.
Finally, I am hopeful for the future because of the lessons this pandemic has bestowed upon humanity.
I am hopeful we are more attentive to global human health in the future, to the realization the Earth has complexities and impacts on humans that are not predictable and life cannot always offer everything we want when we want it, just because we want it. There are checks and balances that must be acknowledged, honoured and accommodated to ensure the endurance of human living on this planet.
I am most hopeful for the future because of the children - they have learned these lessons early in life and are developing both resiliency and a respect for the planet that I, personally, don't think I understood as a child.
These have been my personal gifts from the pandemic - I have lived long enough to know life is completely unpredictable and things happen all the time we never anticipate might occur.
My personal approach to life has always been to figure out the best path through the challenges and look for the nuggets - the small gifts that redeem the moments I truly would have rather skipped, given the choice. And I am grateful there were so many nuggets to appreciate through this whole experience.
I do get tired. And frustrated. But I am also grateful, and it is with gratitude that I will continue to follow the masks, vaccinations, distancing and other protocols until the world feels as safe as we all would truly like it to be.
For me, that is not now.
There is still work to be done and perhaps the best gift of all is knowing we are all able to persevere until the time is right to make significant changes, in a safe world, rather than a precarious one.
For me, living through this first pandemic of my lifetime has afforded me new insights into building peaceful communities together.
Yes, I am tired - like everyone else - from the efforts, frustrated they are required longer than we would lke, yet so grateful to be part of the endeavours to sustain public health and well-being of both big and small humans.
This is, from my perspective, the very essence of building peaceful communities together.
Lorraine Kinsman, Principal
Eric Harvie School
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