Changing It Up

Right now, my roots are two inches from root out, my nails are jagged remnants of old acrylic nails that I took off, my skin is dry and some days I do not even want to shower, let alone lather my thirsty skin up.  This last week, I have noticed I am truly ‘feeling’ this isolation…now semi-isolation.  I am not amused.  I am easily bored and move from project to project more quickly.  Somewhere deep inside, I do not feel satisfied with much.  I do not know about you, but I need something different to be happening.  I came up with a list of things I would like to do, could do, should do, might do.  Maybe it might inspire you to do something different than your usual, too.

While it may be hard for some to walk, to find time to walk, to walk without pain, those that can, could change up a route.  Find a new trail.  Find a forestry trail.  Do not wear earphones and blast something other than nature.  Turn it into a photography walk.  Birdwatch.  Study flora and fauna.  Really look rather than walk.  Get the most of the fresh air.

If walking is difficult for you, then drive.  Drive somewhere you have never known.  Discover what is going on in your small town, your city, your plains, rivers, mountains.  Explore.  

Learn how to use your camera, ipad, phone for photography.  Learn how to edit and post.  

Rescue a pet, not a young one, but a housebroken loyal companion.  Get an aquarium and discover the calm of watching the fish that are low maintenance. 

Watch for upcoming specials on Netflix.  Get YouTube on your television.  We took out our channels on our Livingroom television and just have Netflix, HBO and YouTube, only, on it.  We watch news in the morning news slot and the dinner slot  and we know the times of the covid specialists give updates and we watch them.  No sense over sensitizing covid or politics or any of the conspiracy theories.  Stick to just watching the expert facts.  There are so many fabulous documentaries on Netflix or Youtube.  You can educate yourself, get inspired, follow YouTube tutorials on dyi, art, everything you can imagine and you can watch it on the big screen.   Oh, and if watching a movie, make popcorn; buttery, salty popcorn and have it as a special treat to go along with a movie, etc.  

Get a massage, a pedicure, now that those services are opening.  I had a terrible ingrown toenail  and was desperate when I saw that a pedicurist in our area was doing in home emergency work ( on Facebook, no less) and she lived just down the road.  She is a nurse, usually, at the hospital in town and she came completely gowned, everything in sterile packaging, and we sat outside for some of the work until we needed a more sterile environment so we came in once we knew she was using such safety measures.  What a relief.  Diabetics and those with neuropathy really need to have their feet checked and worked on to make sure no sores are happening. The ingrown toenail never hurt until the big toe turned bright red and I could feel something hurting deep within the toe.  She did a fabulous job and had some antiseptic salve and some ideas on how to keep it from happening again.  As well, she gifted me some foot rub and it is fabulous.  What a balm to my poor feet.  Try that!

After all these weeks of isolation and finally able to get out and get our own groceries sine the end of January, I see very few wearing masks, and we are very careful with gloves and all the cleansing stations.  I do not even mind the arrows pointing alternate routes between aisles.  I choose the furthest back, deepest down, items rather than the front ones. I know, best to be overly cautious rather than not careful enough, in this area where there have been few cases.  Most of our out-of-towners are tourists as we are economically dependent, for the most part, on tourists.  There are none of those here now, but soon might be.  Being careful in grocery stores and when bringing items home and cleaning them, discarding bags and boxes that we carried home, is all part of being careful.  I am glad to see they do not let us bring our own bags into the store.  It may feel inconvenient, but it is best.  Buy something you have not bought before.  Try out something you can make a new recipe with.  Choose something that will spice up your meals.  All this helps in myriads of ways.

Of course, they are saying that men are suffering in their own unique ways, and especially elderly males.  This is because our brothers have worked so hard for so long that they may not have gotten involved and continued a hobby.  Help them find a hobby.  The Bee Man’s bees all died, every hive, last year ( and he is not the only one…many lost equal percentage of their bees as well, and he is awaiting new Queen nukes later this month) and the other day he surprised me with a barn swallow bird house that will eat the flying bothers.  He discovered a way to do what he could do, outside, to keep him busy with limited mobility.  

For women, we always have something we can do.  We tend to have hobbies.  Hobbies are great stress-relief and there is no one who cannot decide on a new hobby and keep at it.  There are thousands of tutorials.  I know, this week, my art has not inspired nor challenged because I have hit some kind of dead space in what I have been doing.  I am a mixed media artist so I am constantly changing things up.  I choose 100 days of hair challenge online and have been including that into what I am doing with a class I signed up for.  Quilting, crocheting, are all great pastimes that fill space on our covid lives.  Anything that challenges us, increases cognitive and creative thinking, is wonderful for us.  Try and find something new to try to do so that you do not stagnate. 

Choose new music to listen to.  We have so many ways we can listen to music.  Our televisions have music channels, there is youtube that has myriads of music videos.  Maybe you even want to learn how to use a new musical instrument, yourself.  Music of all genres are all available.  Try filling space and time with that.

Spend some quality time in writing, recording, your life story.  Seek out your ancestry information.  Make a treasure chest, label names for things to be given to in case, which keeps problems from being caused later.  Make a time capsule.  Do scrapbooking.  (You do not need to buy anything – follow youtube for tutorials on using old books, favorite books, as a scrapbook.  Use your phone or anything to record your story of your life snippets.  Make a family cookbook of your family recipes and/or recipes of food your children loved when they were children, or recipes you are known for.  

Do crosswords, do wordsearches, keep your mind sharp.  Do puzzles.  There are adult coloring books.  Stay consciously engaged.

Do random acts of kindness (RAK). Find a email penpal.  There are neighborhood, community groups that have started groups for swaps and RAK.  See if you can find them or start one yourself.  Start a pay-it-forward.  Step out of your own little life and open up ways to share compassion, to share talents, etc.

We are tired of deep cleaning and our ‘give away’ piles and bags and boxes and yard sale stuff are piling up.  Find better ways and places to fill and store boxes for later. 

Where there is a will, there is a way.  Change up routines, meals, ways of doing things and things we do.  Keep yourself physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually balanced.  It is starting to get more difficult in every area of living conscious in these days and it is not over.  Start changing things up.  

 And stay safe doing so!  Xoxoxo

©Carol Desjarlais 05.17.20