Crumbs On The Keyboard...

Crumbs on the keyboard, and other lessons from lockdown. 

I am now into my fourth week of working from home during the current COVID-19 pandemic. I am safe, my family is safe, my friends are safe. I am lucky unlike 7248 in the U.K who have lost their battle with this virus. 

Working from home brings about a remarkable sense of self discipline. I get that it’s not for everybody, and I get that not everybody can. 

But this is what it has taught me. It has taught me that the level of professionalism I bring to the office is the same level of professionalism and commitment I bring to my computer each and every morning as I fire it up for the day ahead. It can be difficult at times to work remotely, but we are blessed with the technology we have readily available that makes us no more than the click of a mouse away from what we need. We have technology and we have the ability to give as much at home as we do at work. 

One thing I have learnt in this time of social and professional isolation is that even when working from home I still have to force myself to take breaks. It’s a habit I’ve had for many years now where I get too absorbed in what I’m doing and time slips by. This week it kind of hit home when I took a FaceTime call from my 13yr old son Kai. My kids live with their mother, and the hardest thing about this lockdown is not being able to see them face to face and to give them a hug - regardless if they think they’re too big for it or not. So Kai called at what would ordinarily be ‘lunch time’ and during our conversation he asked me what I’d had for lunch. Just small talk, but at that point I’d realised I hadn’t had anything and got instructed by my kid to go make something. He stayed on the call with me as I made a sandwich, but then settled back down again to my laptop to continue working. We chatted and his elder brother chipped in asking “what happens if you get crumbs on your keyboard?”. I laughed and said it’s easy, I’ll just vacuum them off and keep going. 

This come back to me later that evening, it resonated with me for two reasons. Firstly that my youngest son was looking out for me and making sure I was looking after myself. This in itself fills me with pride and love. Secondly how I answered my other son’s question about vacuuming the crumbs and carrying on. This was symbolic. It was symbolic in the way that the crumbs represent all the small things that could potentially stop you from going about your life if you let them, but at the same time with a simple process we can easily eliminate these obstacles and keep going. 

Life isn’t always going to be easy, and there will always be lots of ‘crumbs’ in the way. The main thing is how we deal with them. How we can clear them up and return our minds or our lives to the point where the ‘crumbs’ were never really there to start with. 

This is still going round and round in my head. It’s a lesson, and it’s much bigger than I first realised. One that I will use forever more in helping me to gain clarity in any situation. More importantly to make sure I’m looking after myself and ensuring those around me are doing the same. 

How we act, even within the confines of our own homes, makes a difference. It always makes a difference. 

When you act as if what you do makes a difference - it will!

Happy Damn Friday Peeps! x

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