QUARANTINE LIFE: CHILL

I sympathize with some people’s need for busyness, their inability to fact check or follow directions, aversion to authority, penchant for nosiness, and lost habit of supervising others. 

Truth is, this quarantine, though unfortunate, isn’t difficult for homebodies, introverts, people pleasers, and lovers of peace. 

For many, this is a bit of a welcomed purge. 

New, more efficient ways to get things done are being discovered. 

Clutter is being cleared. 

Projects are being completed. 

Rest is being enjoyed. 

If you had a hard time saying “no”, the pandemic guidelines are saying it for you. 

Evaluations of what is truly pressing and what’s not, are being made. 

Families are rediscovering one another. 

Hobbies are being revived. 

Those drama-filled, time consuming, resource draining, and stress-inducing things in life (prior to February) may be regretted, but they are neither being missed, nor mourned. 

Many are content with never returning to business as usual. 

They’re realizing it was neither sustainable, nor wise. 

Don’t let anxious people manipulate, or alarm you into their version of productivity, or impose their view of what constitutes a need, or emergency. 

The only thing you ought to, or should be doing, unless you are an essential worker, is sheltering in place, and donning a mask of some kind, if you do decide to go out. 

Do what you think is good, necessary, productive, or helpful to do. 

Do your part to flatten the curve. 

Don’t, however, be the least bit worried about those who try, every which way, to engage you to disturb your peace. 

Never mind if they get all huffy, self righteous, offended, critical, or angry when you don’t choose to adopt the plan they took it upon themselves to make for you. 

You don’t have to listen or respond to, support, or go along with anything, just because someone who’s bored suggests it, or thinks it’s a good idea. 

Heed the directives and expertise of those whose desire is that you remain alive and well— physically and mentally.

It’s becoming clear that this isn’t a good time for the possessive, self-centered, stubborn, bossy, and messy people among us. They crave access and attention and their aggressiveness, via smart phones and social media, is showing. 

This imposed stillness is determining whether or not some are employing common sense, content with their own company, or the company of those with whom they live. 

It’s shining a light on incompetence, inauthenticity, and motives. It is also freeing some from the grasp of the controlling people in their lives, as well as a fast pace from which they’ve long wanted and needed to escape. 

For some, this pandemic is helping them to reclaim their time, preserve their energy, and redirect their effort in ways that are nurturing and important to them.