While it would be terribly easy to work oneself into the most terrible tizzy over a pandemic like this one, hysteria never helped anyone and so it is our role as she in charge of all things domestic, to be like swans – as calm and unruffled as can be as we float through troubled waters, even if it means our legs are going like clappers beyond the surface.

Though this may be asking a lot of us as we manage our own anxiety, it is my belief that it is in times like this women can step into their domestic power and drastically reduce the impact crisis can wreak, by focusing on maintaining the sanctity and sanity of home.

Thus it is up to us to set standards for hygienic conduct, for the avoidance of the kind of so-called fake news that feeds panic, and for the maintenance of order, calm and generosity while ludicrous, selfish chaos still reigns in the aisles of supermarkets. Furthermore, it falls to us to establish boundaries for our children, to shift focus to what matters NOW and to make home seem as inviting as possible during what may turn out be the challenging days ahead.

You see, it is all to easy to react from a place of anxiety, (particularly if it is not a new sensation to us), but it is worth remembering in times like this that anxiety is not a friend of either truth nor rationale and we need both things if we are to behave wisely in the face of crisis. That beyond our own anxiety we should be looking for FACTS not frightened rhetoric, and for science, not opinion. That now is a good time to challenge our reliance upon social media and instead look only to respected news sources, and, where possible, to reduce the noise in our heads by limiting even that. We will not stay safe by entertaining conspiracy theories, increasing our own anxiety by undertaking extreme, toxic measures to prevent even the bravest germ coming within a few foot of us, or by restricting our lives to such a degree that the world starts to seem like a frightening place.

While what is happening with the spread of the Corona Virus may indeed threaten some lives, (a truth that none of us want to consider, but that exists none the less), the majority of humanity remains as beautiful as it always has, and it helps us to have some perspective about the limitations of a virus like Covid-19. the expected trajectory of the spread of infection, and above all else the likelihood of its decline when confronted by decisions made by the wise scientists, doctors and governments we are blessed with.

For infection is not a political issue: no-one political leader stands alone when making decisions on behalf of his or her country and there are extremely clever people working night and day on our behalf, in search of answers and solution, so working ourselves into a frenzy about who or who isn’t doing what is both futile and misplaced in a time of unprecedented crisis like this one.

Our energy then will be far better focused on making peace with the unknown. There are very few answers right now to how and when this will be over, but it will help to know that like almost everything, this too will likely pass, and if that means that there are ways of life forever now lost to us, we will adapt, because our ability to do that remains one of the most beautiful of human traits.

So this is a rally cry to step into your own domestic power and to use every maternal, female instinct you have got to protect your family. To roar like the lioness you are at all preventable threat, and as much as possible to keep your attention upon what is happening within your own four walls, and what you can create inside them, instead of fretting about what is happening beyond them.

Take care.

PUTTERY TREATS + PRETTY THINGS