May Updates

May Updates

by Qi Cargill

The last Month has certainly highlighted our need for connection. After having been closed for over a Month it is so good to be open again, to see some familiar faces and to have more routine and some sense of normality.

Although we could have continued to trade under stage three restrictions it felt important to support the huge sacrifices that so many were making, to protect our staff, our healthcare system, and our community.   

The decision to re-open has not been taken lightly and with all safety measures in place it has in part come about from a place of necessity. Nearly all the Government support for small business is retrospective and assumes that we have the cashflow to keep paying staff, etc… until support finally comes through. Five weeks on we are still waiting.

Qi supports six staff, over twenty practitioners and around twenty local suppliers, please continue to support us so that we can continue to support them. Despite the many advantages that globalization has afforded, many Australian businesses have been hit hard, with drought, the bushfires and now this. Please think small and local when deciding where to spend your money and the Australian Economy and our local communities will recover more easily.

Things have certainly changed very rapidly in such a short period and it’s now hard to imagine that things will go back to being exactly the way that they were, even when it is still unclear what our new normal will be.

Although, this time has affected each of us differently (as so powerfully expressed in the passage below), hopefully it has presented all of us with an opportunity to reflect on what is important, what is good about our lives and perhaps what needs to change.

The challenge ahead for each of us is to hold onto this new insight. Whilst many of us are craving a sense of normality, it is imperative that in the rush to get back to ‘feeling normal’ we don’t lose sight of some of the good things to have come out of this.  

We have been given an opportunity to look at the unsustainable way we have been living. Let’s not let it slip through our fingers.

Some of you are old enough to remember what it was like before Sunday trading was introduced. Could we have one quiet, still, family day each week and call it Earth Day?

I’m still advocating for the four day work/school week to give us more time to come together as families, and as communities, to create lasting change. This would also give us more time to explore and express our true passion and creativity which would in turn lead to innovation and a better world. With job share we would also have less unemployment.What simple ideas do you have that could create lasting change?