One benefit to this world-wide virus event is that I have more time to do with as I please. Plans are cancelled or postponed, stay-at-home orders are in effect (although I did sneak across the border and into Arkansas today), dining out is not an option unless you enjoy eating in your car (fried chicken picnic by an Arkansas pond was different), but how much longer can this go on? What if the next two months are the same, or worse, locked down even tighter?
I am taking this day by day. That’s all I have. I can’t count on tomorrow. I’m not glued to my television, I don’t refresh the news websites, thank goodness I am not on social media and blasted with misinformation and fear. Is any of that necessary? No. I’ve proven that for the past couple of years and I am not missing out. I have time but I also want to make use of this time.
Eventually this thing will fizzle out. We’ll all flood the restaurants and bars and shopping malls soon enough. The offices and small businesses will open again and people will go back to work as they had before. The gyms will fill up with sweaty people, we can visit family and friends in their homes. Handshakes and hugs will be more heartfelt.
And when this virus has passed, can I look back and tell myself I was satisfied with the extra time I had? I still want to work out more at home, read and write more, experiment with my film photography, pick up that ukulele and at least make sure it’s tuned properly and more.
I’ve been reading the old stoic philosophers and I liked this quote from Seneca: “It is not that we have a short time to live, but we waste a lot of it.”
Sleep
Meditate/pray
Workout
Check on family and friends
Reading
Writing
Better nutrition
Learn something new
Build your own music playlists for moods
Watch something different than usual and no more than 2 hrs
Solve the world’s problems in conversations
Play games
Laugh
The best part of this list? I don’t need some damned virus as an excuse to do any of this. These are my goals and hobbies. For me. If this was my last day and I was able to do a few of these then so be it.