Is it just me or do others find it challenging keeping track of time? Not in a “Is today Thursday?” kind of way (when it was Tuesday ALL day!), but rather in a “Are we still in 2020?” kind of way (when actually, an entire additional YEAR has gone by!) kind of way.
Our new time markers
The Before Times (BT)
People who know my husband Stephan and me have often said “no moss grows under their feet”. In the Before Times, we were always on the go: here at home, across the country, around the world, enjoying all the arts, cuisine, and culture we could find and fit in. If we weren’t fully immersed in an adventure, we were most likely planning our next one. On March 1, 2020 we were scheduled for our own Holy Cow Indian Adventure. Sadly, the closest we came at that time was take-out from Mela, our favorite Indian restaurant, down the stree
During the Pandemic (DP)
I remember exactly that Friday, March 13, 2020 (Friday the thirteenth!) when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Contagion was just a movie, right? RIGHT?! When I left my colleagues the night before, we could never have imagined that we would only see each other in flat, rectangle web conference screens for the foreseeable future.
Thankfully, a lot has changed since those early days of eerily quiet streets, toilet paper shortages, and wiping down our groceries before bringing them into the house. Thankfully, Covid-19 vaccines and simple infection control protocols help keep us healthy. Thankfully, for those of us who are fully vaccinated and boosted, contracting Covid-19 might more likely be an inconvenience rather than a death sentence.
After the Pandemic (AP)
That all said, with all we can be thankful for, nearly two years on, we’re not “After the Pandemic”… yet. And with mounting concern around increased infection rates and Covid-19 variants, it just doesn’t feel like a new year.
At our recent “Friends-MAS” get together, after at-home rapid tests and appetizers, we mused on the topic of New Year’s resolutions. Did we make resolutions last year? What year is this? Is it still 2020? Unanimously, we decided while still living During the Pandemic, let’s not add undue pressure on ourselves and commit to new resolutions. Among the lessons in Switch, let’s focus on celebrating what works. Not that new resolutions would necessarily be negative experiences and fail; rather, let’s just give ourselves a break and celebrate the positives of our time During the Pandemic.
Resilience
Hopefully, we’ve all found resilience tactics that help us cope mentally and emotionally during this global public health crisis. In our Pandemic Pod, we have new-found bakers, knitters, and bird watchers. Among us, we have also found our own wonderful ways to meditate daily. Whether a few minutes or a few hours per day, in silence or guided by an app, we’ve all found that daily meditation helps us process the insanity, de-stress, and work towards a new normal.
Active meditation
For me, I can’t fathom sitting in silence for 10 minutes focused on a candle flame. To say I lasted 2 minutes trying to would be extremely generous. Thankfully, I learned that instead, I could meditate, actively, anywhere and everywhere!
Early on during the pandemic and new to working from home, I committed to taking a walk before I logged in every day. It took practice to walk without distraction; to breathe deeply and to purely enjoy the experience of walking.
I started with a few minutes a day, every morning. Walking around the block was easy. I picked up trash like David Sedaris. Soon, I expanded my boundaries and found green spaces for forest bathing. When I joined Dana-Farber in September 2020, I started “fake” commuting to Longwood. Now, my 2+ mile “commute” is at least 2 hours most days, rain or shine, and I LOVE IT.
This positive outcome of our time During the Pandemic is what I’m celebrating going into 2022. (Or will it be 2021? I’m not sure) And even when this crazy time in history is behind us, daily active meditation is a practice I plan to hang on to.
How have you been resilient?
What about you? What will you celebrate?
You are definitely not alone, Jess. Keeping the years straight, let alone the days, is impossible these days. Your suggestions about taking one day at a time, “fake commuting”, and daily “active meditation” are going to be my new coping mechanisms. Fortunately, I live in the sticks, so I can easily combine forest bathing with my daily walks. And that clip of David Sedaris talking to Seth Meyers about picking up trash is right on target. I just started doing that on my walks this week (well before seeing this clip) and wonder if people will think I’m crazy. But I’ll just blame it on COVID. Thanks so much for an amusing and inspirational post!
Great blog post! agree on not adding undue pressure with resolutions unless it is to be kinder to yourself or actually take breaks! But we also can’t just let the years go by…we need to remember to celebrate our lives and live it to the fullest even in quarantine. Each day is a gift.
Great post, Jess. BTW – I listened to every David Sedaris book I could get my hands/ears on when I commuted. He’s hysterical!