Q&A: Making Sense of Lockdown

My Self Discovery During Spring of 2020

This article is in response to a request by Michele Thill, who was invited by Aurora Eliam, CMP, who was responding to the prompt: Answering Questions About A Lockdown from Keno Ogbo.

It’s always a great honor to be invited to participate in writing exercises that include people I have grown to care a great deal about.

1. What have you missed the most during this lockdown? I used to go downtown in my city of Detroit and watch the water, as well as mingle with the people on the River Walk. I love water, and not just because I’m an Aquarius, but it most definitely plays a part.
2. What is the best thing about being in a lockdown? Time to do things that I didn’t have time to do. Priorities have been drastically altered, we have to take full advantage of such an opportunity.
3. What has been the worst thing about being in lockdown? Not being able to move like prior to. Wearing a mask and gloves seem so weird, it feels like I’m in a sci-fi movie.
4. Who would you have liked to host in your home during the lockdown and why? My wife. We’re in two different cities. I was visiting my mother when they declared limited motion. I talk to her often, but nothing beats being in the presence of someone you love.
5. What have you discovered about yourself in the lockdown? That I can stay up beyond 8:00 pm EST. I wake up at 4:00 am EST every day and I used to not take naps, period. So, I used to shut down at 8:00 pm EST every night, that is until I ended up at my mother’s house. I have a sister with major health issues and a special needs niece, both of which, my mother is their primary caregiver. Seeing that I’m here I help out a lot and this interferes with my sleep, seeing that my niece doesn’t go to sleep until well after midnight. I’m used to going to sleep at 2 and 3:00 am now, wow, reading this last line seems unreal.

6. What did you eat (or drink) the most during the lockdown? I’ve been a vegetarian for over 25-years, and a vegan for over eight months, so my meal plans have been the same for the most part. Eating to live, not living to eat. I have been eating a lot of barbeque chips, I love barbeque chips. And I drink V8 Fusion religiously, strawberry/banana is my all-time favorite.

7. Apart from sleeping and working, what activities did you undertake the most during the lockdown? Interacting with my social media family on Instagram, and via a live chat, I created called Positive Place. Here we come together and just vibe, I call it our temporary escape from reality.

8. Will you come out of lockdown heavier or lighter? I've weighed 165 pounds ever since I was 20-years-old, I’m now 55-years-old. So, I think it’s safe to say I’ll be the same size once this is over with, just can’t gain a pound.

9. What resource has helped you the most during the lockdown? The internet has been a gold mine. I recently reached out to a book cover designer and hired her to do the cover for my third book, she did an excellent job by the way. I’ve also ordered a number of items from Instagram family members who have started their own businesses, so the internet has been extra good to me.

10. What is your top tip for other people in lockdown right now? This is the best time to map out a plan to live a dream. Figure out what it is you’d love doing even if you weren’t paid a penny to do it, and then figure out how to make it make you more than a penny. I’m writing books. This is the best time to invest time and energy in doing something for yourself.

11. How has lockdown changed you? Outside of my sleeping, I haven’t changed. I do things later than I once did, but I still do them, in fact, I do them more now. I’m still reading, writing, and mingling, which will never change.

12. If you were to leave a ‘message in a bottle’ for the future, what would you say? That everyone during this moment in time wasn’t influenced by the evil that oversees this world, some of us were really trying to be a light. If you search really hard enough you’ll discover signs of this in books and music, some of us really did try.

And some of the other fabulous writers who have already taken the challenge: Amy Marley, Dipti Pande, Kevin Buddaeus, Besom & Bletherskite, Timothy Key, Lori Brown, Russell Weigandt 🦄 Chris Hedges

Prompting some of our shared friends: Gurpreet Dhariwal, Ksenia Sein, Livia Dabs, Paul Myers MBA, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D., Desiree Driesenaar, Marlane Ainsworth, Terry Mansfield, Trista Ainsworth, hSalam Khan, Selma, Rasheed Hooda, Indra Raj Pathak, Jessica Cote, Tim Maudlin, JeffHerring.com. Please tag us in so that we can read.