Today is back to school in our house. The weekend has been spent in a mix of doing those last few summer things and preparation for the new school year.

Like many people, ours has not been the summer holiday we’d planned. That said, it started off on pretty much on track with our regular summer visit to the Isle of Wight to see a set of grandparents.

Before going I’d managed to persuade the 9-year-old to have a haircut …. of sorts …. And since he’s currently into 80s music I’d had to agree to a mullet, for the summer holidays only. On our way to the Isle of Wight we’d stopped in at another set of grandparents, who took great exception to the mullet and agreed to pay him £20 to chop it off!

The Isle of Wight provided much needed respite and familiarity – crabbing, beaches, fish and chips and a little clothes shopping for me.

It was when we returned that things went a bit yampy. Our plans for warm sunshine rapidly degenerated into a series of cancelled flights so we started to see what else we might do for a week. This was still the beginning of August, and today still felt a long way off!

Not known for our love of English outdoor pursuits as a family, or our love of camping, we surprised all our family and friends by renting a campervan for a week and heading to the North East, via a niece’s wedding.

It was certainly an experience. Did we have a good time? Overall, yes … but a week was hugely optimistic for newbies like us! We managed 4 nights, our 5th was pre-arranged to be staying with friends, and then the final night had amber flood warnings, so we took the hint and headed for home. Was it an experience? Yes. Would we do it again? Possibly, but only a couple of nights!

And now, this morning it is back to reality.

I’m writing this in the quiet hour before the alarm (what’s that again?) goes off and the house begins its familiar school routine. And I’m asking myself, what is reality going to look like in the months ahead?

Much of my freelancing work is going to remain online, because it works well that way, if not better.Instead of workshops delivered as intensive days, they can be spread out over a few weeks and delivered a couple of hours at a time.

Without the pandemic, I’d likely have resisted this move, it would have been out of mine and my audience’s comfort zone. I would have only seen the downsides of what the technology couldn’t do.

Now, as I go back to (daily) life, I know the reality of my work will evolve again, as we open up further. The key for me will be to keep an eye out for those places of resistance, where my natural reaction is no that won’t work, and remember that often those are the places where the best ideas hatch from and to let them grow.