Cocooning

You don’t hear the word “cocooning” used very much nowadays when it’s an actuality for most of us, not a fad. When it was first coined in the mid 1980’s by Faith Popcorn and George Will, it described a trend among people who felt harassed by daily life and wanted to create peace of mind by insulating themselves from the world by withdrawing to their homes at every opportunity.

Being not so much cocooned as incarcerated has changed our perspective of how to have fun at home. I’ve noticed that being effectively housebound has changed my awareness of the surroundings. Being around more makes you more aware of the little rhythms of your local environment, both natural and human – the Noisy Miners keeping the area free of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, the pair of Ravens who live around the dead trees in the park, the Brush Turkeys that have multiplied since they started baiting the foxes, the dog walkers who have the same timetable I do.

Without the commute, I have time to walk the dog early in the morning as well as late at night. Grotto Point at the end of our street has a nice view over Sydney Heads and one routine I never knew existed happens every Thursday, which is rubbish day in our street.

So each Thursday morning the rubbish truck is parked at Grotto Point and the three garbos are seated on their deck chairs having breakfast and watching the dawn come up over North Head. I’ve taken to having a chat with one of them, a New Zealander from Dunedin. He hasn’t been back to Dunedin since he arrived in 1998. Who’d want to when you can eat breakfast on a still June morning watching the sun come up over North Head.