This certainly wasn't what I originally had planned for my birthday. Originally, the plan was to be setting off on a Mediterranean Cruise with my mom that would have traveled from Marseille through Genoa, Naples, Messina, Valletta, Palma de Mallorca, and Barcelona, and then ending the week with my husband in Nice, France. Obviously, being on stay home orders in Michigan isn't quite the same.
This was, however, my first time leaving the house and the neighborhood to get a take-out treat for myself since clearing my public health monitored quarantine check-in period after arriving from Paris. What an oddly different world to return to and venture out in this year for my birthday.
The weather has been too cold most days to go out for a long walk, but we finally had a break that gave us an opportunity to spend a little more time outside without it being too cold, too rainy, or muddy.
Even for someone like me, who is very used to staying home and working from home, the quarantine period has still had its moments of challenges and difficulties. Learning how to navigate these peacefully in healthy ways has been part of the learning experience of this pandemic.
Taking note of the rising death counts, shortages of supplies for healthcare workers, and thoughts of people never getting to say goodbye to their loved ones on ventilators has definitely hit me hard in the heart. I see other people grieving as well- but sometimes with far less empathy or compassion- and much more anger and frustration. This also takes a toll on me, and forces me to find more tools and resources for coping and returning to balance within my empathetic sensitivities.
I think other people are sometimes afraid of this open outpouring of emotion and compassion- unsure of whether it's safe or not to express it openly as an act of raw vulnerability. They question if it comes across as mentally healthy or rational. To them I say, I share these feelings with full consciousness that it is in our vulnerability that we normalize our waves of emotion as being perfectly acceptable and valid during this time. To suppress them may actually be less healthy than simply acknowledging them and sharing them.
As a lifelong artist, I have recognized that our emotions are the seeds of amazing art. To feel them and live them fully through creative expression is to be fully alive and powerfully in touch with ourselves and our human experience.
Multiple times during the week I was reminded of the power of creativity, and how the earth provides so much material for us to work with and create with, and we should never take that for granted.
This was, however, my first time leaving the house and the neighborhood to get a take-out treat for myself since clearing my public health monitored quarantine check-in period after arriving from Paris. What an oddly different world to return to and venture out in this year for my birthday.
The weather has been too cold most days to go out for a long walk, but we finally had a break that gave us an opportunity to spend a little more time outside without it being too cold, too rainy, or muddy.
Even for someone like me, who is very used to staying home and working from home, the quarantine period has still had its moments of challenges and difficulties. Learning how to navigate these peacefully in healthy ways has been part of the learning experience of this pandemic.
Taking note of the rising death counts, shortages of supplies for healthcare workers, and thoughts of people never getting to say goodbye to their loved ones on ventilators has definitely hit me hard in the heart. I see other people grieving as well- but sometimes with far less empathy or compassion- and much more anger and frustration. This also takes a toll on me, and forces me to find more tools and resources for coping and returning to balance within my empathetic sensitivities.
I think other people are sometimes afraid of this open outpouring of emotion and compassion- unsure of whether it's safe or not to express it openly as an act of raw vulnerability. They question if it comes across as mentally healthy or rational. To them I say, I share these feelings with full consciousness that it is in our vulnerability that we normalize our waves of emotion as being perfectly acceptable and valid during this time. To suppress them may actually be less healthy than simply acknowledging them and sharing them.
As a lifelong artist, I have recognized that our emotions are the seeds of amazing art. To feel them and live them fully through creative expression is to be fully alive and powerfully in touch with ourselves and our human experience.
Multiple times during the week I was reminded of the power of creativity, and how the earth provides so much material for us to work with and create with, and we should never take that for granted.
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