When there is quarantine or lockdown, when schools close their on-campus activities, businesses close, workers are laid off or start working remotely, coronavirus gives us a kick in the ass, but also the unexpected gift of time. At the very least, commuting and travel time is saved, and at most, you could be presented with entire unstructured days. The adaptation is a challenge for sure, and yet offers a lesson in flexibility, whatever your age.
In the spirit of making lemonade when given lemons, what could we do with this unexpected extra time and change of schedules?
1. Start a journal of reflections, questions and ideas.
2. Open that old sketchbook again and use some of those blank pages.
3. Meditate, whatever your practice, and do some yoga, stretching or other exercise.
4. Create a personal home altar, with personally meaningful objects, colors, and images.
5. Purge those objects around you that don’t nourish you. (This is hard but rewarding.)
6. If you’re in a home, repair something. Fix furniture, paint, or mend clothes.
7. Plant something, even a pot in a windowsill.
8. Make some music. Listen to some new stuff.
9. Spend some new kinds of time with whoever’s in your household.
10. Communicate more with family and friends.
11. Think hard about who you vote for and why and help keep democracy working.
12. Try new kinds of body care.
13. Even if you don’t leave your property, get outside for air, sun, view of clouds and stars.
14. Get to work on the family tree. Maybe subscribe to a service like ancestry.com
15. Scrapbook, or scan, those family photos in that old box.
16. Record some of the key stories of your life or write your autobiography.
17. Read books and articles you’ve been wanting to get to someday. Someday is here.
18. If you have a computer and a backup system, back up the files that matter.
19. Prepare your “go-bag,” the thing you grab when running out the door in an emergency.
20. Learn some new software or com- puter processes; maybe get some new fonts.
21. Whether in school or out, deep- en your practice of becoming a lifetime learner.
22. Try these 25 non-screen fun activities, at bit.ly/33uIlXG
23. To explore 136 questions with links to answers, go to https://bit.ly/3d8l6Hc
24. Learn the ecological way of thin- king, and how science shows we live among miracles.
25. Get rid of the idea that humans are superior, replacing it with inter dependence.
26. Get rid of any entitlement you may feel and replace it with gratitude for the gift of life.
27. Prepare the seven documents needed before you die, with help at bit.ly/2Un3COL
28. Prepare emotionally and spiritually for your coming death, however it arrives.
29. Make a list called “After the pandemic.”
30. Remember what the old Chinese man with the white horse said, when consoled by villagers for various traumatic things that happened in his life, “I don’t know. Could be bad news, could be good news.”