The Beast from the East has been visiting the UK in the last few days, and wreaking a degree of chaos and havoc. In Edinburgh the schools have closed and kids are instead spending their “snow days” sledging down the usually car filled streets and turning The Meadows into one huge snowball fighting arena and snowman building site. The supermarket shelves are startlingly empty, the airports and public transport services closed. Even the theatres are cancelling performances! As the powdery white stuff has swept in, so our usual way of living and behaving have been swept out, temporarily at least. There has been an eery feel on the streets as vehicle traffic dwindles, people largely heed advice and stay home, leaving a few snow revellers and hardy pedestrians to struggle against the snow drifts, wind chill and sludge.
It has struck me just how little it has taken for our usual routine and way of living to be disrupted. And how much I have loved it! Not only has the scenery around us been transformed to something more akin to an East European country, but the activities and habits we take for granted, like getting to work, or buying food, or catching the bus, or going to school, have also been disrupted. Yesterday I found myself for the first time ever emerging from a hardware store, carrying 2 sledges in one hand and a snow shovel in the other, while dressed in full scale cold weather gear, in the city centre, and with a big smile on my face. That was after a period of lying in the middle of the road doing snow angels….Neighbours have been helping each other to clear their driveways, and a crowd of new snowy residents have moved into the city parks, clothed in branches and with carrots for noses; the product of the energy and playfulness released by the unfamiliar depths of snow.
And it got me thinking about disruption, about transformation, about how little it can take for significant interruption to happen, and what that can make possible: a new perspective, a new experience, a different energy, some growth, some challenge, some experimentation. It also highlighted to me that while the disruption of routine and usual ways of doing things brings me joy, so it brings irritation, frustration and anxiety to others.
I can’t help but believe though that without disruption, our ability to learn and grow is so constrained. How have you responded to the conditions and interruption? What have you noticed in the response of those around you? Personally I am an advocate for healthy doses of disruption, interruption and challenge, to keep us awake, keep us alive and keep us learning. And so I thank the Beast from The East for the freshness of mindset, not just of climate, it has brought to our land.