QUARANTINE LIFE: DRAMA FREE ZONE

I admire people who think for themselves; who are discerning, creative, and are using this challenging, yet interesting time for good.

Gullible, wavering, drama-loving people are antsy. They pick up every cross, adopt every beef,  jump on whatever bandwagon is currently rolling, see everything as a crisis, align themselves with, and repeat the rhetoric of crazies, and soon find themselves lacking, in a mess, needing prayer, and on the wrong side of history, arguments, and causes---and THAT misery desperately wants your quarantine company.

Unless someone's gossip, rant, or opinion is going to intercept my InstaCart or Amazon orders, or cause popcorn to be banned in the United States, I don’t care one whit about it. I wish I had a dollar for every time during a recent conversation I said, “Ummm. We are in the middle of a pandemic.” 

No one's issues are ever small or petty to them, and you don't ever want to be lacking in sympathy or empathy, but some things don't constitute a crisis, and aren't worth knowing. Guard your eyes an ears.

You’ve GOT to pick your causes and battles, especially these days, and the good thing is, you no longer have to be a reluctant audience member. With one click, swipe, delete, ignore, block, unfollow, or end, you can free yourself from potential captivity.

What’s that meme going around? “Never mind what THEY said. Why are they so comfortable saying it to YOU?”

I’d respectfully add, “Why are you so eager to repeat it?” 

You’ve got to pay attention to what others want to drag you into (in the middle of a pandemic, or otherwise). 

I believe this pandemic, for some people, was a divine search-and-rescue mission, designed to snatch them away from things and people that were stressful, constricting, abusive, and exhausting. It was a course-correcting blessing designed to free people from that which they would, otherwise, never have let go of. 

For me, it was a swift kick out of what was becoming yet another very comfy comfort zone.

I’d gotten the push that I needed last year. I was happy, and feeling more inspired and creative than I’d felt in a long time. That's the zone I continue to cultivate and enforce.

You have to evaluate the impact of people’s words. Some people speak your name, and matter-of-life-or-death things actually happen. Others talk, and the only thing that happens is they diminish, and make fools of themselves, forfeit potentially good personal or working relationships, and ruin their own credibility. 

It's funny, but the people who have so much negativity to spew, rarely will bring their problems about, and issues with you, TO you. They’ll always tell some meddling imp— someone who can’t keep wet in water, who'll phone you and say, "I thought you should know...". 

Those are the type of trivial, draining things that demand to be shut down even swifter than the response to the pandemic. 

Preserve your peace.

That plan you had to abandon your chill, and respond to the words of a talebearer? Scrap it. Stay at home. Put the phone down. 

Ask yourself what real impact do people have in your life these days--or have they ever had. 

How often do you even have to encounter them? 

If you’re always on their minds, and the topic of their conversations, who truly has the problem finding something constructive to do, as we all wait for Miss 'Rona to go back to the pit of hell from whence she came?

These days, the preservation of your peace is vital. You have to differentiate what’s critical and deserves your attention, from what’s mere foolishness. You have the freedom now, perhaps more than ever, to choose what and who you invite into your space, and what you do with your time, resources, and effort. 

Stay safe. 

Forward is the way with what enriches, builds, inspires, helps, enlightens, educates, strengthens and brings you joy.