A reflection on where we are - Gratefulness, Kindness and COVID-19  

I feel grateful today. I should always feel grateful, but sometimes in the busyness of life and the stresses that are around me, I can forget. I work with an amazing group of adults and children every single day, doing what I love - bringing the fullness of life to them through faith, learning and relationships. I am part of a supportive Parish faith community which nourishes me and gives me a place to find peace. I have all the things I need to live a happy and fulfilled life, with family and friends who love me and would do anything for me. 

Why am I telling you this? Because this week I was also quite sick and needed to stay home to recover. Despite the fact that I was certain I didn’t have COVID-19, I did “the right thing” and took a test so that I could be certain I could be around these amazing people (including all of you reading this) knowing I was not placing them in danger. I handled being sick, worked from home as best I could and even found the energy to keep my 6 year old daughter occupied when all I wanted was to lie down! 

What I failed to be grateful for was that my negative result took 103 hours to come to me and I was stuck at home feeling terrible! I was frustrated with a system that I had no control over. I had to stop and remind myself that I should be very grateful that I was having my frustrated moments in beautiful Port Macquarie.    

At the start of this school week, Principals in the Diocese of Lismore attended an emergency zoom video call with the Catholic Schools Office. This was in relation to the evolving situation in the Northern Rivers of NSW with a positive case of COVID-19 detected in a person presenting to the hospital for treatment. There has been much commentary shared across the week about the people involved in this, our disdain with their behaviour and many other situations around the country, as we hear of areas that are now in lockdown. I have friends, colleagues and family members who went from life as we know it right now, to complete lockdown within hours. 

This scenario plays a part in our sense of uncertainty and worry, as it did in 2020 when we all were navigating this virus and what we largely didn’t know about it then. Fast forward 17 months and we know more about it, but still live with a degree of the unknown. What we have to keep in mind is what we have learned and what we need to remember to be as grateful and safe as possible.

The first thing that COVID-19 taught us last year, continues to be our first step this year. At all times, remaining calm and taking careful and considered actions towards challenges is our core starting point. The second thing to remember is that there are people every day working hard to make decisions for other people and to help contain COVID-19, without a crystal ball to guide them in what lies ahead. We may not always agree with them, as it affects our lives in ways we don’t like (such as my test frustration). But if we place ourselves in the position of people trying to make decisions in this way, we may understand the pressure that is there and how sometimes things won’t go as well as we hope. Currently we are still fortunate in our area to be free to do most of what we want to. If there comes a time when this changes, as it has in areas not so far from us, we will all do our best to work together to support each other.

In the meantime, we would all feel a whole lot better if we were able to think about what we are grateful for, which is of course sometimes easier to say than to do. However, we don’t know what battles other people are fighting that we can’t see, and we don’t always think about how acts of kindness and simplicity can make the difference to someone else.

This week, I ask you to pray for those who are sick, their families, those who treat them, those who are suffering difficulties in wellbeing and those who are just trying to do the best they can. We are all human and we are in this together. I also invite you to practice gratefulness and consider what act of kindness you could do for someone else. What could both of these actions do for our beautiful children as they live and grow in this world?

Tess Koning
Principal