“Welcome, welcome to Carnival! The
grandest show on land or by sea. Inside you’ll experience more wonders than
most people see in a lifetime. You can sip magic from a cup and buy dreams in a
bottle. But before you fully enter into our world, you must remember it’s all a
game. What happens beyond this gate may frighten or excite you, but don’t let
any of it trick you. We will try to convince you it’s real, but all of it is a
performance. A world built of make-believe. So while we want you to get swept
away, be careful of being swept too far away. Dreams that come true can be
beautiful, but they can also turn into nightmares when people won’t wake up.” ― Carnival
Life, in its normal state, can be a
circus, indeed. It is more so today as
we deal with a pandemic. This is going
to affect us emotionally, for sure, as isolation becomes the norm. It is not that I am not one to stay home, but
I go out once a week with girlfriends and we let it all out in laughter and
friendship. I spent fourteen days
in-home at my daughters, and now I have come to another province, I need to
stay in-home another fourteen days. I am
sure this is going to grind us down to raw emotion at some point, even if we
have always been good with not being out and about. It is the loss of freedom to do what we want
when we want. I am well aware I will
become feeling a sense of this lock-down.
It is a totally new circus.
In this circus we know as life, now,
remember, you are the ringmaster and the reigning celebrity of your own
life. We have the right, the ability, to
mastermind a wonderful show. Give your
power to no one, make every day some kind of celebration of you! There are animals in this circus, to be
sure. Be careful and really vet those
you let into your life. Do not give your
stand to anyone else to control your show.
Some days you will be called on to walk
a tightrope. Make sure you have a net
beneath you for the days when you lose your footing and fall. No tightrope walker did it perfectly the
first time. You might need some solid
friends to keep you tethered. We all
need those kind of people in our lives.
And, again, make sure you chose wisely, those you trust. Stay balanced as best you can. do the things that feed your soul and keep
you from fear-reactions of every kind.
Try to stay focused and balanced.
Some days we will be the clown. We live in serious times and will need some
humor in our lives. Make sure, if you
are juggling things during this time, start slow and keep focused but do
something spontaneous and silly sometimes.
My girlfriends and I are bingo-goers.
That is the basis of our friendship and once a week, faithfully, we meet
up and once a month we gather to go out or meet in one of our homes. Some are already bingo-starved. On the phone, yesterday, my one girlfriend
and I were talking about whatever we are going to do. After the call I got a crazy idea and had to
share. I thought it quite brilliant and
seriously funny. We could each make
ourselves some bingo cards. We could
meet once a week in conference call or on Skype, as a group, and have one of
our husbands pull numbers at random.
Whoever wins, the others have to bring whatever is needed to our
doorsteps. Did we ever laugh at this. But we might do it after weeks of
this..lol
Remember that there are freaks in this
circus. Try to be tolerant. And, man, when I see millennials wandering
around our block in groups, I hiss and spit inside the walls and windows and
know I am jealous but not stupid enough to do it myself. Sometimes we will be the lion-tamers, the
elephant trainers, and it could get tense when someone in the house roars or
someone starts drinking all my diet Pepsi I stored up on. lol.
There will be times you have to crack
the whip. Make sure you do it gently and
compassionately. Each of us has our own
circuses and we have no idea what is going on under their own tent.
Just know, this circus is full of
surprises, of new rules for circusing, for unexpected things, and sometimes it
will feel magical or terrifying. We got
this, though. No matter what goes on
outside, we keep in mind we bought and paid for this circus-business we are in. Watch for the sparkles, the sawdust, the
glitter and the gore. Seek out the best
acts!
For this painting, I chose a painting I
had done earlier, and did not have a background for it.
I made a couple of circus
things to use in the mixed media piece I envisioned.
I drew them and cut them out of pieces of
brush-cleaning papers I had in my 'junk' drawer.
I, then started on a background.
I glued my little cut-outs on top of the
background. I now love her.
How are you managing your circus?
©Carol Desjarlais 3.28.20
Love your analogy of our lives being a circus and how it's a very different circus in these days of the pandemic. While we are being isolated in our homes away from people, it's also a time of getting close to people in other ways, like your bingo game idea online. I also wonder if, when this is all over, will we be able to re-build a BETTER world for ourselves and our children and children's children.. maybe we can.. maybe this virus will teach us all to look at life as so much more precious and will shift our perspective on what's really important... Lets hope so xx
ReplyDeleteOh, yes. This is a chance to redo many things. Perhaps we may l;earn to slow down and to take note of the things we were too busy to deal with before. We can only hope life, in some way, becomes more purposeful. Yes, there is hope.
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