6B460 Review
(written in April 2020)
My 6B460 review was meant to include a review of a visit to
Belfast, but because of the Covid19 Lockdown all my travel plans have been
postponed. I decided to go ahead and write the review anyway. Hopefully I will
have visited and reviewed my future trip to Belfast before this blog turns ten
in 2023.
1. Visit Belfast and Northern Ireland
I was due to visit Belfast at the very end of March and the beginning of April 2020. Because of the Covid19 Lockdown this failed to happen. I don’t know when I will get to visit Northern Ireland, hopefully sometime before November 2027, which is when I will turn sixty.
2. Work in libraries for at least thirty years
I celebrated thirty years as a librarian in February 2020,
just before the Covid19 Lockdown, by visiting the British Library’s Buddhism
exhibition. I was pleased I celebrated my three decades of library work with
some style. At the end of March I started working from home. I hope I will keep
working well into this decade.
3. Keep a blog going for ten years
I started my blog in 2013, the year my dad died. My blog is
now seven years old and I have scheduled posts until 2023. So hopefully, even
if I don’t write so much in the future, my blog can keep going for a full
decade.
4. Play classical piano pieces in public for ten years
I started playing classical piano pieces in public in 2010
shortly after starting as a semi-professional piano teacher, teaching my
daughter’s friends. After facing a crisis of venues in 2018, I managed to keep
playing until January 2020. I don’t know how much public (or private) piano
playing I will do in the future.
5. Practice Buddhism everyday
Living through the Covid19 Lockdown has made mindfulness
feel even more important to me. I am getting better at mindfulness, meditation
and ‘il dolce far niente’. I go for a walk everyday and enjoy slow tea and
food, listening to music, watching films, drawing, gardening, reading books and
poetry. I find I am much calmer and try to be kind and patient.
6. Live a good enough life
Luckily we managed to celebrate my mother’s and my
daughter’s birthdays in February 2020, before everything shut. It was a time
when appreciating a slower, simpler life was becoming more of a priority. I
feel that I have done what I could with what I have and hope that will
continue.
