Tag: pandemic

The Virus Chronicles Part 3: Navigating Change

So here we are about a year into this pandemic. There seems to be a glimmer of light towards the future but boy oh boy I am tired.

Rationally I know there’s a plan but I’m tired of staying home. Tired of wearing a mask…now recommended we wear two. Tired of not seeing friends. Tired of hearing about friends dying from the virus. Tired of hearing about the massive number of deaths around the country. Tired of plans made and not coming to fruition because of this damned virus. Tired of people not taking it seriously. Tired of health emergencies being treated as political (I won’t go there but you know what I mean). I could go on and on and on…

I’m sure you feel the same.

I feel like I’ve aged 10 years since this started. How about you? There isn’t enough retinol around to cure what the past 12 months has done to our faces.

I go from okay, happy productive one day to depressed, emotional, and paralyzed the next. WTH?

So what now? How do we go from all this chaos, change, emotional overload, pandemic…to continue into the future?

I wish I had an easy answer. I’m working on what that looks like for me. Staying creative has helped but it’s hard to keep creating when the world feels so heavy. But I keep trying. And I am thinking about circling back to the ideas and projects I was in the midst of last year at this time. Maybe plucking some creative gem from things that were lost to bring them forward. That might spark some joyful movement.

I feel a lot like the little viruses in the video above. Bumping into things, bouncing off, not really sticking to any one thing. But I need to find cohesion. Something to bind me to the future so I can stop wallowing in the past.

I will promise myself only to keep working and give myself some grace as the next few months unfold.

Stay tuned…

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The Virus Chronicles

Or stories from quarantine…or pandemic play by play…or tales from behind the mask…

It seems like I’ve disappeared. I really haven’t. I just have been hiding from some forms of life since February. I don’t think I’m the only one. Let me go back and fill you in on what’s been going on.

Back in January and February I was finishing up a business plan for a brick and mortar creative store. Almost ready to commit to commercial space I found out my parents were having some health issues….and there was a deadly pandemic on the horizon. My dad turned 90 in February and that was the marker for his health decline. Numerous hospital visits and my Mother, in trying to take care of him, fell and broke her hip. They both went into rehab but my Dad never came out. All of this went on 3000 miles away from where I live.

Stay at home orders were in place when my Dad passed away. There are more things going on around his passing that effected me emotionally but mixed with the virus threat it put me into retreat. We stayed home. We only visited with each other. We did all the quarantine things. Creativity took a hike.

All of the spring and summer shows cancelled. Not surprising. I felt like my creative brain was cancelled. Don’t get me wrong spending time with family was pretty wonderful. We had lots and lots of quality time to chat, connect, cook, and bond. We dove headlong into a bunch of home DIY projects …like 20 different projects all at the same time. (no they’re not all finished)

My creative retreat took me back into lots of sewing. I dug out patterns, made some of my own, and spent hours alone at the machine. I made myself almost an entirely new wardrobe…that I have no where to wear. But it was meditative and allowed me to take my mind off all the other things going on in the world.

That pretty much brings me up to date. This is my first public and/or social media post since February.

Surprisingly there are a couple artisan shows that are going to go as planned this fall. This news has plucked me out of my funk a bit although I feel a little off course. Grieving different aspects of life takes you off course. But I’m finding my way back through creativity…and looking forward to doing a few normal activities.

See you soon,
Susan

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