So.
We’re three weeks into self-isolation and home working due to COVID-19. Everyone’s lives – all around the world – have been turned absolutely upside down as we do our best to ensure we stay healthy and don’t transmit this illness to those we know. I’m fortunate to be fully employed, and even if there has been a pay reduction, work keeps me busy during the days, and money in my bank account. For that I am very fortunate. But it’s still hard.
I’m missing my coworkers. I’m missing the jokes in the hallways, the coffee room chatter and the knowing I could walk across the floor and talk with my colleagues.
I miss lunches with friends, dinner and drinks with girlfriends who have been in my life since my kids were little. I miss drives up to my parents, coffee with a lake view, and the best shoe store around!
I’m missing my yoga classes. I miss the ritual of the same movements over and over that you don’t have to think about – you just do. I miss being able to pop out to the store to replace the grapefruit juice I’ve run out of, or to pick up the hot cross buns I forgot to get.
I miss my choir and church family. I miss making music with them, voices joining together in learned harmonies. Especially at this special time of year, when triumphant Easter music is usually in our black folders and if we’re lucky, trumpets ring out alongside us.
But there are some benefits.
I don’t miss the commute. Gridlock on the QEW was always a pain in the neck. I appreciate the quieter skies since the airplanes stopped flying so much. I’m told the air pollution is reduced.
I’m taking long walks more regularly (maintaining appropriate physical distance!), and enjoying the sidewalk chalk drawings, the window paintings and the painted rocks the neighbourhood children are leaving to brighten up our days. One day, the kids next door made a work of art out of my driveway!
I like being able to finish a meeting and step into my back garden to see what’s growing today. I will very much appreciate being able to take calls from the garden, basked in sunshine when it gets a bit warmer. Much nicer than my windowless office.
I like being able to take a “bird break” and see the different birds at my feeders. And they probably like that the feeders are filled up far more often than when I went to the office every day. A robin is building a nest at my back door. This year, I’m likely to be around to watch her raise her young and even have the privilege of seeing fledging day.
I’m wasting less food and eating better. Reducing my trips to the grocery store means I’m using up what I have and being more thoughtful about what I put in my mouth – and having time to cook properly. I’m saving money. No window shopping means no impulse buying. And save for an expensive desk chair, I’ve not succumbed to online shopping – yet!
Zoom meetings, emails and Facetime calls mean I’m reaching out to people I haven’t talked to in months. My daughter and I are baking – and we’ve made a few surprise front step drop-offs already to ensure we don’t eat it all!
I try and remember these benefits when it all starts to get a bit too much.
How are you keeping your spirits up as we collectively – but distantly – work through this difficult time?
