Everyone is offering advice on how and what to do during this pandemic. There are wonderfully encouraging songs from famous musicians, there are museum virtual tours, there are group meditative sessions, there are recommendations on what we should be reading.
We had drafted a blog about cleaning out our closets and learning how to create a minimal wardrobe. But it feels like this is not the time to be thinking about wardrobe and fashion.
We find ourselves in Zoom conferences and GoTo meetings where we have a chance to be social. Friends are scheduling “dinner dates” with friends, eating together online. My friend, Jane and I are trying to figure out if we can play bridge or backgammon together. Another friend did a workout with me on Skype. We all agree that we miss social interfacing. We recognize that we are social creatures. We miss meeting for drinks and dinner. We miss athletic activities like tennis and the gym. We miss face to face conversation. We miss connectivity.
Because of my health challenges, I am self-quarantined. Actually, I didn’t plan to be but one of my sons insisted that I do so. (I am thinking that it proves that he does love and care about me.)
I cannot even go to market, or pharmacy or gas station. I can go to the barn to visit my horse and we were hacking out until two days ago but we have concluded that we should not ride but I still make an effort to visit the barn.
I find that I need fresh air. I need to be outside for a portion of every day. Pets give us a reason to get outside and my three dogs need the exercise. We are still able to go to the beach and to the local conservation land to walk and run. My livestock keep me company and I try to get out to muck the paddock and groom both my mini donkey and mini-horse. They hang out with me during my “cocktail hour”. (see photo) My neighbors come by to visit them, keeping their distance from me and generously offering to shop at the local market should I need anything. I feel fortunate to have moved here with such thoughtful neighbors.
I find it helpful to turn off the radio and television to relieve the anxiety about this pandemic. It is calming to listen to your inner voice and/or to listen to music rather than virus updates.
I structure my day, working in my office at my computer in the morning, then getting outside for an hour of exercise and fresh air. Check out my desk top humidifier.
Lucy thinks we should consider setting up a Zoom session for us to gab with friends and followers. What do you think? It could be a kind of a free-for-all mini book club, discussion group, or whatever. We could make ground rules so that we do not sink into the malaise of current politics and panic.
In the meanwhile, I have a list of projects that I intend to tackle. Understand that some days, I do not want to do anything and that’s okay too. My list includes putting away winter clothes, cleaning out closets, organizing drawers, putting piles of photographs in order and making albums for family members, and figuring out how to knit a complicated stich pattern on the sweater I am making.
Lucy has her list of projects and secrets to keeping sane. She has officially accepted that all of those projects that she thought she would never actually do are now real. The first week of self-quarantine, she was in shock, last week she was mad and now she is accepting. It sounds a little like stages of grief and, in many ways, it is. We have lost our lives as we knew them.
So now she reports that she has no excuse not to do the following:
“Walk, walk and more walking. Before I would have excuses like too hot, too cold, have a meeting. Now it is my solace.
Calling friends. I have reached out to good friends all across the country. Most are Christmas card friends as I call them. Once a year, we catch up with a card and a promise to call or to visit. No one now is actually busy and you can call any time. It has been wonderful.
I continue to store my now grown children’s memorabilia. Sometime after about age 8, it went from beautifully organized scrapbooks to a messy box. I’m on it.
I have tons of cookbooks but that has not stopped me from cutting out from magazines or printing recipes from online sites. I thought I did a pretty good job of putting these recipes In recycled plastic sleeves, Today, I started organizing the notebooks by topic. Chicken, Soups. Please stop me. But it is fun to actually look at each one and throw out some old or weird choices with the certain knowledge that I am never going to make all 483 chicken recipes even if the pandemic lasts all summer.”
We recognize that we need to take this time to listen to our inner selves and “hear the silence”. How this will change the way we live and work is open for discussion and our imagination. Let us hope we can find our way back to a sense of community where we can embrace each other and appreciate our differences. Stay well and safe.
Ciao
Lucy and Claudia