What Can I Take Away From This Time?

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Abstract

t is time to reflect on these strange months and glean lessons from them. To learn from a time filled with forced introspection, a distorted sense of identity, grief and Netflix binges. As the days blurred together and became indistinguishable I came face to face with a part of myself I’d buried and ignored for too long.</p><p id="b94c">In looking back at quarantine, these are the lessons I am taking with me.</p><h2 id="b5c5">1. Without health, achievements and accomplishments have no meaning.</h2><p id="5988">One minute I was building a career, meeting family for birthdays and training for a marathon. The next thing I knew we were sheltering in place, fighting an invisible enemy whose spread across the globe left death and destruction in its wake. When faced with the possibility of infection everything faded in importance. Gone were the careers, material possessions, social standing and competition.</p><p id="0fdd">In the end, all that mattered was staying safe. The futility of worldly success was exposed for all its vanity; they all meant nothing during this time.</p><h2 id="a5ef">2. All the tomorrows I had piled up never came to be.</h2><p id="5d70">The idea of tomorrow, next week and two months from now was erased during the quarantine. Procrastination was revealed for the time stealer it is. All the plans I’d put off, the conversations I had avoided and the desires I had failed to pursue called to me from yonder. It’s important to seize each moment and grab the opportunity when it presents itself.</p><h2 id="70c5">3. My mental h

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ealth is as important as my physical health.</h2><p id="d48e">At no other time have I faced my thoughts and emotions than during this pandemic. The uncertainty of the times gave urgency to processing my feelings. And with validation came a sense of importance and worthiness. A desire to take it slow and savour each moment; to allow me to inhale the gift of life with all its contours and bends.</p><p id="26a2">Each day I found time to take it slow, to sit in the sun and stare at the blue sky. To marvel at the wonder of mother earth. To breathe in and connect to the present. And it was glorious.</p><h2 id="4186">4. Relationships give colour to life</h2><p id="efbd">In the long days of wandering from room to room, adjusting to Zoom calls and homeschooling it was friends and family who kept me grounded. Hearing a familiar voice on the other end, meeting with friends as we kept an unusual distance and bumped elbows in place of hugs was the silver lining in the dark clouds. Sharing my fears, laughing at memories of old and planning for the days’ post-Corona lightened the load of the pandemic.</p><p id="4b0c">Life is filled with ups and downs. As we transition to a fast-paced, not always glorious life I do feel anxious about what lies ahead. What we had accepted as normal was mixed in with starvation, crime, poverty and lack. In building a life we had destroyed our planet, pushed our bodies to the extreme and alienated friends and family. I do hope this time will teach us to slow down and focus more on what is important.</p></article></body>

Finding Meaning In Lockdown

On 6th June, at 3 pm, the Kenyan government announced a new set of containment measures. Not everything is back to normal but of importance is the delicate balance of restarting the economy in the backdrop of the pandemic.

Businesses are encouraged to re-open with staff to stay 1.5 metres apart, the masks are still recommended in public places and handwashing and temperature checks continue at the entrance of public places.

We still keep some restrictions. The dusk to dawn curfew moved from 7 to 5 am to 9 to 4 am. Cessation of movement in and out of the capital city remains, public gatherings of more than 50 people are outlawed and schools remain closed till September. Places of worship, pubs, hotels and cinema halls remain closed.

With the number of infected cases increasing each day, we do not know when all restrictions will be lifted.

But with the possibility of returning to work soon, I feel it is time to reflect on these strange months and glean lessons from them. To learn from a time filled with forced introspection, a distorted sense of identity, grief and Netflix binges. As the days blurred together and became indistinguishable I came face to face with a part of myself I’d buried and ignored for too long.

In looking back at quarantine, these are the lessons I am taking with me.

1. Without health, achievements and accomplishments have no meaning.

One minute I was building a career, meeting family for birthdays and training for a marathon. The next thing I knew we were sheltering in place, fighting an invisible enemy whose spread across the globe left death and destruction in its wake. When faced with the possibility of infection everything faded in importance. Gone were the careers, material possessions, social standing and competition.

In the end, all that mattered was staying safe. The futility of worldly success was exposed for all its vanity; they all meant nothing during this time.

2. All the tomorrows I had piled up never came to be.

The idea of tomorrow, next week and two months from now was erased during the quarantine. Procrastination was revealed for the time stealer it is. All the plans I’d put off, the conversations I had avoided and the desires I had failed to pursue called to me from yonder. It’s important to seize each moment and grab the opportunity when it presents itself.

3. My mental health is as important as my physical health.

At no other time have I faced my thoughts and emotions than during this pandemic. The uncertainty of the times gave urgency to processing my feelings. And with validation came a sense of importance and worthiness. A desire to take it slow and savour each moment; to allow me to inhale the gift of life with all its contours and bends.

Each day I found time to take it slow, to sit in the sun and stare at the blue sky. To marvel at the wonder of mother earth. To breathe in and connect to the present. And it was glorious.

4. Relationships give colour to life

In the long days of wandering from room to room, adjusting to Zoom calls and homeschooling it was friends and family who kept me grounded. Hearing a familiar voice on the other end, meeting with friends as we kept an unusual distance and bumped elbows in place of hugs was the silver lining in the dark clouds. Sharing my fears, laughing at memories of old and planning for the days’ post-Corona lightened the load of the pandemic.

Life is filled with ups and downs. As we transition to a fast-paced, not always glorious life I do feel anxious about what lies ahead. What we had accepted as normal was mixed in with starvation, crime, poverty and lack. In building a life we had destroyed our planet, pushed our bodies to the extreme and alienated friends and family. I do hope this time will teach us to slow down and focus more on what is important.