Living well with unwelcome circumstances

When I heard reports of the exhaustion people were experiencing after these two years living with a global pandemic, I empathised. First, because I, too, am experiencing this Pandemic Exhaustion after the stress of lockdowns, uncertainties, boundary closures, losses, and enforced distance from loved ones.  Second, because as I have shared with you through my Diary of a Chronically Exhausted Vicar, I have been living with Chronic Fatigue and Depression for many years, both of which bring about long periods of debilitating, chronic exhaustion.

However, as I have shared in the Diary, I have slowly been learning how to live well with Chronic Fatigue these past three or four years. Before that, I had spent more than 20 years learning to live well with major depression. So alongside my empathy for those experiencing Pandemic Exhaustion, I felt that perhaps I had wisdom to share that might offer encouragement to others. And the Peacock’s Roost podcast was born, with its subtitle of ‘learning to live well with unwelcome circumstances’.

Season One explores Exhaustion: the gifts it can offer, the practices I’ve gradually employed, and a new ‘normal’ of living well, chronically exhausted. Three episodes of around 30 minutes each, and a shorter introduction of under 10 minutes, and that’s a season.

I plan to record further seasons that will explore more of the learning to live well with Chronic Illness, and also with other ‘unwelcome circumstances’. I will also explore other unwelcome circumstances of the pandemic, such as not being physically present at my sister’s wedding because of border closures; and unwelcome circumstances not pandemic- or illness-related. The unwelcome circumstances that come with being a poet, like rejection; or that come with feeling emotions, which we are taught to contain for one reason or another.

Conversations with others might be possible, and topics suggested by listeners may feature.

We are stronger as a community when we share our stories with each other. When our own stories are heard, it nurtures and affirms our being, identity, health. When we receive the gift of another’s story, we are encouraged in the living of our own as we discover we are not alone, and glean wisdom that helps us make meaning of our story. We are healthier as individuals and together when we connect through the sharing of story. So Peacock’s Roost is me sharing my story, to encourage you in living yours. And I hope it is an instigator for the sharing of your stories, too.

Between seasons, I will continue the conversations around wellbeing through the Peacock’s Roost Instagram page – @PeacocksRoost – and I look forward to meeting you there.

Listen now to Season One of Peacock’s Roost, and join the conversation.