“About face”, this is our new emergency directive. Not news, we are all redirecting our lives to stay healthy and assure the health of those around. Lately people have been messaging their boredom, their cabin fever and trying to cope with habit changes and life style changes. “Think positive” is my response. We have no choice but to continue to live every day to the fullest. For us, there are just the two of us in our motorhome to consider. So it is a bit easier to plan our days. For me, this is the time to do things beyond the “pale” so to speak. Paul and I are doing some things together, exercising, walking, cooking, and we plan to read books and *poetry to each other, play scrabble, re learn cribbage and Zoom link to friends and family. We will try Zoom group happy hours with friends in the RV park. I am savoring more books to ingest, more films to watch, hobbies to catch up with and projects to continue or begin. (I intend to write my blogs featuring books, music and movies I have enjoyed to share and to have you share back. During a crisis like this focusing on favorite things helps us through)
I do not loose sight that we are among the lucky ones, having traveled (Our Panama tour cut short but that is trivial in light of this crisis.)
Images; Panama Canal traffic Embra Village dancing, beautiful people
We do not have any illness in our greater family to date, we can meet our bills, order food and more on line, we have a roof over our heads and too many items of clothing too wear. So many do not or cannot see their loved ones in a nursing home, hospital or out of town or access adequate medical care. Many have a houseful of youngsters at home without their friends nearby. We can send money to help causes, we can inquire of our neighbors as to any needs or problems they have. Each of us must let go of our former ways of thinking and start new habits. Perhaps start that diet they have intended to follow, call people you have meant to call for so long, catch up on the many things we” intend to do someday.” It is also the time to do things on a whim that you have rejected so many times. Heck, live it up, have your favorite food for breakfast–pizza, steak, ice cream, chocolate, champagne, wear that old pair of jeans or sweater that you are embarrassed to wear “in public” let down your hair and dance fast and furious in place.
*Look for Knopf Publishers annual poem a day in April and sign up at
http://knopfdoubleday.com/knopf-poetry-signup/
This favorite poem; “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.