I was watching the Wimbledon there the other day (I was lucky enough to attend in person last Saturday) and I overheard the commentator say that some female tennis player had ‘taken a year out for her mental health.’ I stopped dead in my tracks. What’s that now?
I have heard this a few times in the women’s game. They are all taking time out for their mental health. Naomi Osaka said on the front of Time magazine informing us that “It’s OK not to be OK.’ Quite the wordsmith she is.
The great gymnast Simone Biles, sparked a global conversation around mental health in sports when she chose to withdraw from the women’s team final at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and four subsequent individual finals to prioritise her mental health as she dealt with the now-infamous ‘twisties.’
There is a lot of this mental health stuff about. And who am I to judge these fantastic female athletes who devoted their lives to sporting perfection? I’m not judging them. But I would like to join them.
Returning to the tennis scene when I heard this comment I said out loud for the children to hear – a year out for mental health? I’d like a year out for my mental health. Let someone else do the cooking, cleaning, laundry and all the rest of it. That’s what I’m going to do, I told them.
This provoked laughter whereupon Annabelle (my eldest) gave some commentary on the excellence of my laundry skills, the brilliance of my cooking abilities and all round ruthlessness of my organisational tactics. You know, I think there might have been a mocking tone in there. I did not care for it, dear reader.
Anyway, they’ll be laughing on the other side of their faces when they wake up and are told by their father that in fact, mother has gone off to Clare Island with – get this now – Eighty Thousand Euros of government money to do up a cottage. In fact, I’ll just get someone else to do up the cottage and have my mental health break when it is ready for me. Then the family might learn the settings on the washing machine.
The Irish Times reported:
‘The Our Living Islands scheme offers a supersized grant to renovate a home on an Irish island. The Living Islands scheme offers a topped-up grant for properties on 23 of them, including some of the most habitable and picturesque.
These include: Árainn Mhór, Toraigh, Inis Meáin and Uaigh Island in Co Donegal; Clare Island, Inishturk and Inishlyre in Co Mayo; Inishbofin, Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr in Co Galway; and Bere, Heir and Sherkin Islands in Co Cork.
Applicants must own the property or be in the process of buying it. They must plan to live in the property as their principal private residence when the work is completed or make it available for rent.
I’m not that fussed on which island to escape to. Whatever is the least rainy. I’ll have my mental health sabbatical there for a year and then rent it out to the next hard pressed mother who also needs a ‘break for her mental health.’
I am not too worried about the details right now – please don’t bother me with details – just get me to the island. This scheme was also reported in the Daily Mail so there is a chance you could end up on your island with a few Daily Mail readers from something – shire. That is fine by me.
This all fulfils my fantasy I told you about in the Anne Tyler book, Ladder of Years. In that book mother and wife Delia Grinstead went for a walk on a beach and kept walking. Then she walked some more. She didn’t look back until she reached some little town. Don’t worry, eventually she informed her family who visited her, while she had her own mental health sabbatical. I’m not a monster.
What really appealed to me about this book, and about the island living to be honest, is that lack of stuff. Delia rented herself a small little room that had hardly anything in it. the beautiful simplicity of that. I do actually love my family but now and again I could do without the stuff. We are not big spenders here but there is just so much of it. Hardly any of it is mine but I feel it pulling me down.
I could easily live in some small cottage that had underfloor heating on a beautiful island with my books (granted there are a lot of those), my piano or my daughter’s keyboard, my clothes and my laptop. I assume there is 5G on these islands – I’m not going unless there is 5G. And a coffee machine, I demand a coffee machine. That’s all I really need. The family can visit, don’t get me wrong. As I said – I’m not a monster. All I’m asking for is a year.
I do have one concern about ‘my mental health sabbatical’ and that’s the weather. I am very sensitive to the weather so perhaps moving to a rainy island, where “the rain is going straight up and down” would undermine my mental health, on my mental health sabbatical. But I suspect the silence, the hours I would have to practice Mozart, the books I could read and perhaps even write would be more than enough.
What’s more, when I put something down it will be right there where I left it. No one will have moved it. A miracle! This would more than make up for the rain. I’ll keep you updated.