I have been off from work for the past 11 days because of the coronavius, and I will be off for another 10 days…unless another announcement is made extending my forced time off. Although life has been challenging for all of us, time has been my savior and best friend, and I was given the opportunity to think and reflect on the world and in my life. I firmly believe that there is always something good in seemingly bad situations. Of course, in this pandemic there is WAY more bad than good, but still, there IS some good to think about! Here are 10 things I learned from being isolated from the coronavirus…
- Money can’t buy love or toilet paper. Who knew toilet paper would become such a precious commodity? It took me two whole weeks to find toilet paper. I kid you not! This is after going to three stores daily with no luck. No one can really explain how this started although theories abound. Hoarders and people in fear are to blame, I guess. Come on, people, we can do better than this!
- Cooking is a creative art form. I’m a single girl so I pretty much eat almost every meal out. After work, especially, it’s just easier to dine out. But I learned through all the restaurant closings that cooking, which I thought I hated, is actually fun as I discovered that it takes creativity to cook a good dish, and I love being creative. Who knew looking for ingredients for certain dishes would be so rewarding? I never took the time to research and think about all the spices that are available. I felt like a kid again who was discovering a new world. In addition, I gained a new healthy habit. And I never realized how much money I would save by cooking at home.
- Proverbs are underrated. The saying that ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ rings SO true today. We can’t be with our friends and loved ones because of the social distancing and isolations that are current in the world right now. I wish to be with friends nearby and family far away but who knows when I can be with with them again? There will be big hugs when I see them, soon, I hope.
- The mundane is actually a luxury. I didn’t think of a gym or health club as a luxury until now since all are required to be closed. Oh, how I miss the hot yoga classes, the treadmills, bikes, and even the stretching area! Other seemingly mundane examples are a simple haircut and basic grooming such as a manicure. Yes, these are First World problems but still…
- I’m not a weirdo for always being a clean freak! Some people might say that I have OCD. I always washed hands frequently and would always be thoroughly disgusted when someone sneezed. I vividly recall from my childhood class that showed a person’s sneeze in the air in slow motion. It was like a huge shower which had like a 10 feet distance of disgust all around. Absolutely disgusting!!! I was traumatized by it. So ever since that childhood class I always moved far away from the people who sneezed, even going to another room, especially since I found that most people didn’t really cover up their sneezes properly like they do now from being more aware. As I think about the guy a while back who looked at me funny when I asked him to wash his hands immediately upon entering my apartment (I ask this of all men, especially), I am not a weirdo after all. Another case in point that I’m not a weirdo about cleanliness is that when all the hand sanitizers disappeared from stores, I was proud that I had four big packs of them in my arsenal already. I didn’t realize I bought them on sale some time ago. 😃
- Life’s happiness should be redefined. Instead of wanting the next big house, expensive jewelry or clothes, for example, maybe we should reconsider how we define happiness. Perhaps happiness is simply going to a grocery store and having all the shelves stocked with needed items. Or maybe happiness is the ability to go to a restaurant to be with friends and share a meal, and wine, of course. Perhaps happiness is having the freedom to take a walk along the lake. As of a couple of days ago the lakefront in the city of Chicago as well as all parks are to be closed to stop people from congregating so as not to further spread the virus. We would be so happy to have this pandemic be over with so we can go back to enjoying the daily routines and the freedom of being human beings! Who knew that basic freedoms and expectations of life would be taken away so abruptly? Happiness truly is in the simple things.
- We cleaned up the environment. The great thing that came out of this pandemic is that our environment is much better for it. Since the industrial operations are halted with the result of the social isolations, quarantines, and country’s lockdowns, there has been a reduction of road, sea, and air traffic. Hence, our air is much cleaner and our water is much clearer, too.
- I don’t need 20 pairs of jeans! As I was Spring cleaning with the rest of the world, I found out I had 20 plus pairs of jeans. No one needs 20 pairs of jeans! I even found a pair (or two) with tags on them that were so old. I also found many more expensive things that I only wore once or twice that I would never wear now. To think what I could have saved up for with all that money wasted. I vow to be more cautious with the frivolous spending and to put the money toward my favorite passion which is travel.
- I fell more in love with the thing that I love most. I love travel so much! I had a trip planned for this month to go to Tokyo to catch the cherry blossoms which has been a dream of mine for some time now. But because Japan was unsafe to travel to I decided to keep my travels within the U.S. This was before the current status of no flights to anywhere. I planned to fly to L.A, then to Arizona to visit my brother who just moved there. We were going to drive to Sedona (another dream of mine for some time now) but that’s not happening, either. Then I thought about when my next trip would be. But since we don’t know when this nightmare will end, who knows? Remember the time when you first fell in love when you missed your lover? That’s how I feel right now thinking about missing travel.
- There is great beauty in tragedy. As dystopian as our world is right now, I think we will all come out of this better than before. I think this pandemic could be a teaching moment. We realize how valuable our freedom is to us all as well as our yearning for human touch and connectedness. The basic rights of going to work, frequenting restaurants, and just taking a stroll with family and friends after dinner is not allowed at this time. With so much time on our hands there is such ample time for inner reflections and revelations. And with this comes more gratitude. Gratitude for cooking more meals in our homes, appreciating the simple things we took for granted, having more time on our hands to clean, relax, sleep, exercise and bond more with our friends, children, spouses, and pets. But perhaps most important of all, as most of our freedoms were taken away from this pandemic, we realize how lucky we are to have been living with such freedom abundance before. There is a paradigm shift of consciousness that we WILL all rise above this! Perhaps the life that we had before this crisis was much more than enough, or maybe it’s the life that we all craved, needed, and loved after all.
