I’ve been thinking of this pandemic as something to endure.
But in two recent meditations I’ve been challenged to do more than accept change, but embrace it.
The first few months of the pandemic have had me grappling with anxiety and fear, adapting to working from home, finding ways to connect with friends and family remotely, and shifting my routines and building new ones for the way my life now runs. But I’m feeling ready to take on this question now: what can I do to fully embrace my new stay-home lifestyle? Rather than feeling resigned and limited by the situation, how can I embrace this pocket of time, turn this into an opportunity? What good can I take from this reset?
In society, we have an opportunity to rethink work in all its aspects, to ingrain new social norms like telecommuting. Normalizing mass-scale work from home could have staggering repercussions on everything from emissions with less commuting, to the real estate market with less demand for office space in cities, to different distribution of restaurants and services as people aren’t based in a central office and going out to eat, to changes in street design with reduced demand for daytime parking, and more. Telecommuting can also a great help to many disabled people, opening up opportunity for those who couldn’t work in a traditional office setting.
And with all the protests happening and raised awareness of racism, our culture has a chance to make life on the other end of the pandemic better for Black people. To change our unfair and oppressive systems, despite manipulation of our fears by the media and police and the inertia of local government.
Change at a societal level is certainly not without challenge, and at the brink of change there is still the risk of reverting to the norm, to what is known – and to what preserves the current distribution of power and money. For personal change, too, there is an initial barrier of resistance to overcome, and the residual nature of habit to persevere through. But as soon as you conceive of a way to change your life dramatically for the better, it becomes impossible to ignore forever. Either you find a way to adopt it or it haunts you with what-ifs.
Some change is forced upon us, like this pandemic. But we can claim ownership of even situations so out of our control by turning them into opportunities for personal change.
A cat at utter peace on my lap.
A stroll around the block with my husband, enjoying the petrichor from a light rain.
Looking up from my computer and catching the apricot-tinted sunset out my window.
As I try to find opportunities for good to come of this season of staying home (rather than focusing on what I’m missing out on), I’m trying to take more joy in the simple pleasures of summer, and life.
Today, that was eating cherries from my CSA while I read a photo journal of a photographer / climber’s mission to summit fifty peaks in North Cascades National Park in a year.
This weekend, maybe a tart made from fresh peaches and a day trip to the river in my husband’s hometown.
This summer is quieter than I would have planned, but instead of lamenting what could have been, I can revel in the fleeting gifts of the present.
Throughout my thirties, I’ve taken steps to simplify my life, and thought there wasn’t much more I could pare back, but now I’m seeing what simple really is. I grew up in a go-go-go household, so it’s taken a lot of work to release that mindset. Still, I have too many projects and interests to fill my day, and have to be intentional about resting and relaxing. And as summer passes quickly, I realize that in a typical year, we would have taken several weekend trips. Trips that require lots of research and coordination to pull off — burdens that I put on myself, from which I’ve been freed this summer.
I’ve been thinking lately about travel, and whether I take it for granted as an upper-middle-class American, and whether it’s worth the personal benefit to me when air travel especially contributes so dramatically to the climate crisis. This pause on travel is an opportunity to reevaluate our choices. We’ve toned down our flying the past few years, opting to take road trips through Canada for most of our longer vacations, but we still have an Alaska Airlines credit card to accumulate miles and get a discounted flight each year. While I enjoy exploring the world, I also wonder whether the ability to hop somewhere warm for a quick getaway excuses us from truly embracing the place where we live, and finding other ways to appreciate the place where we live. Whether relying on travel to inspire and rejuvenate us makes us devalue or miss inspiring places where we live, and not find ways to rest that are more sustainable. What wonderful things about our homes are we taking for granted, or missing altogether?
International travel and weekend getaways* seem de rigueur among my class, but most people in America and the world don’t have the means or flexibility for frequent or distant travel. Why would travel feel like a need for me, when most people cannot do it? What is the mindset of easy travel taking away from me?
As someone who tries to live intentionally, responsibly, and in tune with my ecoregion, taking this summer to try out not traveling is enlightening. I doubt we will completely stop flying since my family lives in California, but I can see a future where we focus much more on local exploration. And I am wondering whether we can find a healthier balance of enjoying the beautiful place we live, but also spending less energy and money “getting away” for a weekend.
The quiet, close-to-home life is valid, too. Right now, I am appreciating what it has to offer.
*There’s also something to be said about a work culture so exhausting that we feel the need for constant getaways.
About Tracy Durnell
Seattle-area graphic designer and SFF writer inspired by the Pacific Northwest, crafting a sustainable and intentional life. (she/her)