Reflection for October
Pamela Scott DCS
Encourage one another
I went into a shop on Sunday, one I have been in every week since March. A shop where I have witnessed many changes over the last few months. One where I thought the changes that now existed would be in place for several months if not several years. However, when I went on Sunday there were more changes. There were separate entrances and exits, something I wondered previously why that hadn’t been done. Not only that, there was no one at the entrance to say whether we were to go in or not, others were just going in, so I did too although I felt a bit uneasy about it. The shopping experience was the same but when it came to queuing this had all changed. Barriers were removed, signs to say, ‘queue here’ were removed, again I felt uneasy, ‘Was I doing the right thing by going to the empty checkout?’
All seemed fine until I was almost finished, and a very loud voice rang out,
‘The queuing system is still in place, please wait over there until you are called.’ Obviously, others had started queueing at the checkouts.
Since then I have heard many stories of people’s different experiences of GP’s surgeries, shops and chemists and how each one has a different way of working.
This got me thinking about people that don’t go out much, maybe they were shielding and only go out if necessary, maybe someone they stay with is very vulnerable, so they try not to go out unless it’s necessary. If I felt uneasy with small changes, how much more would they feel. They may be uncertain about what they should do or what way they should go. Some may feel that they don’t want to look silly by doing the wrong thing. A couple of weeks ago, the news had a report about people who had lost their sight and how difficult life now was for them. Things they used to do have now all changed. There are queues, where there never used to be any. There are new one-way systems in place, but this is not made apparent to those who are visually impaired. I wonder how these changes affect others, maybe those who have autism, Asperger’s, learning difficulties? What about those who have Mental Health issues?
There are so many people that will feel totally lost in this new world of ours.
We can help people that aren’t sure what to do or what way to go. We can make ourselves open to their needs, pay attention to our surroundings, be ready and willing to offer help as soon as we feel it is needed.
Therefore, ‘Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.’ (Hebrews 10:24)
Amen