The country’s going into lockdown again, a glitch in the normal progression of time. I went for a morning walk around the lake and it seemed like everyone is out preparing for it. It might be just in my head – polluted by the news – but everyone’s stride seems to take on an extra urgency, like this might be the last bit of walking they’ll get for a long time. I presume their heads have been polluted by the news as well. It starts to hit home when I remind my friend that we won’t be able to pop over the border to surf at the waters of Sligo for the time being.
The thought seems outrageous – sure isn’t Enniscrone practically Mayo anyway?? it’s just the far side of Ballina! I always thought it was in Mayo growing up. Ah sure Mayo and Sligo – it’s all the same. Though to be fair, having gotten to know the west Sligo coastline in recent months I can already see the subtle differences between the two. Where did those funny-looking mountains come out of, for starters? The near side of Ballina, your green and red bleeding colour-blind into brown in the land is a bit more prominent, and so are the scatterings of rocks, or at least as I picture it. The grass seems a bit fresher above in Sligo. It’s probably all that money – they seem to have a bit more money up in Sligo as well, don’t they? Ah yeah. I’ll bet they do. Keeping it in their pockets, so they are, the shneaky ceaaants.
So as if this whole situation and my recent move back to Mayo hasn’t had me looking that bit further inward than usual in recent months, the whole country folds in on itself again once more. Mingling to be eradicated. Immunise us from socialising. Travel to be kept to a minimum. There’s not going to be many crowds at the beach from now anyway, with the weather. Although, with no foreign travel for the foreseeable future – the unavoidably foreseeable winter – then this year we might have to change our mindsets, rather than our environments.
Embrace the weather. See it as something to enjoy rather than fear. Be mindful of the weather, see it as what it is – a natural occurrence to be experienced rather than an on-demand dopamine injector, your own personal sweet shop or ice-cream machine that delivers exactly what you want, all of the time. That’s no good for you in the long run, you know. It’s good mental health practice to accept what is, whether it’s the weather or the lockdown. Once you’ve accepted it, you can embrace it, and start to see the good in it. It just takes a bit of a shift in your perception.
Though I still can’t for the life of me get my head around the fact that Enniscrone isn’t in Mayo.