We are living in a strange world at the moment, at the time of writing this we are in week 4 of a lockdown, with the prospect of another 3 weeks or maybe more of staying at home with no socializing, not being able to leave the house for anything other than work, essential shopping and one hour of exercise a day. Sometimes I wake up and think that it is all just a dream, things are normal I will get up go to work and everything is fine but unfortunately it is not the case and we are indeed in the middle of a surreal existence.
The first 10 days of the lockdown I spent most of the time in bed with one of the most awful bouts of flu I have ever experienced so was too ill to get stir crazy but now I am feeling much better I am eager to make the most of what is a bizarre situation.
So far we have decorated the spare room into my office studio – blog post on this coming soon, or you can check it out on my Instagram started to work on the garden, sorted out every cupboard, organised the stock for Fabulous Miss K store and bagged up clothes that don’t fit or aren’t working ready for the charity shop.
I am taking this time with the business too, focusing on what I really want to do, what makes my heart beat a little faster and where my true passion lies so there will be some changes coming – letting go of some things and creating new services and ideas. I am a looking forward to getting back to writing more blog posts with a whole new look for the website, new branding and many more exciting changes.
While on my weekend walks I have discovered some fabulous open spaces that are within walking distance from the house that I never knew were even there – I have always found peace near water and so just by chance found a beautiful park near the river that will be perfect for picnics when I can stay out for longer than an hour!! I am missing just being able to jump in the car and head for the beach – but saying that we didn’t actually do that very often although we have some amazing beaches only about half and hour away so when this is all over and back to normal I are going to make sure that I take advantage of them and make a point of walking along the peaceful beaches and having picnics on the sand.
Talking of getting back to normal whatever normal is? It has actually made me think if I want to go back to how things were before all this madness set in? I saw a quote on Instagram the other day ” in the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.”
There are things that I am definitely missing – seeing good friends, giving them a hug, sitting in a restaurant or bar chatting over a glass of wine or good food and as soon as we can get back to that part of normal I will appreciate it so much more and not take it for granted the wonderful independent businesses we have in our fine city of Norwich, I will hug my friends a little tighter and appreciate the gift of their embrace, next time I am sitting in a crowed restaurant I take time to look around at the smiling faces, loud voices and be thankful of the gift of community.
I don’t think I want things to return to how they were. I hope we all take lessons learnt over the next few months and create a new normal.
Maybe it is the planet telling us we have messed up big time and giving us an opportunity to take things a little slower, have more respect for our environment and change the way we do things? I have noticed walking around the air smells a little fresher, the rivers are looking a bit cleaner and nature seems to be thriving.
My goal is to be more thankful of simple pleasures, truly appreciate all the blessings of each day that were so easily taken for granted a mere few weeks ago.