The Bright Side of Lockdown

A reply to Sherry Guinn’s “Silver Linings.”

“Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.”

— Plato

The bright side of being locked down

Being locked down hasn’t been too bad for me. I was already retired for practical purposes. The one nice thing is that everything shutting down has allowed me to spend more time with my youngest son. It has been nice to see the world slow down for me, personally.

When my oldest son was younger, I was working a lot and he was doing many things with school. We didn’t get to see each other as much. But, with the lock down in effect, I spend time with my youngest son while his mom works at a nursing home. I am thankful there haven’t been any cases at her facility, but the administrators have been working hard to prevent any cases by restricting access, checking employees and patients, and not accepting new patients.

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

— Marcus Aurelius

The lock down begins like a stay-cation

Mlock down began around Friday the 13th. March 13, 2020. That was when my son’s school cancelled classes because of COVID-19. After that point, other appointments started cancelling. The state shut down everything on the 24th.

I’m medically frail, so I knew I wasn’t going to go wondering around any more than I needed to take care of things like buying food.

My son’s spring break was the week after the school cancellation. My son had a two week spring break, instead of a one-week as had been originally planned. The school dropped off homework lessons, so we had worksheets to work on. Later, they dropped off my son’s computer that had been at school.

“Happiness is a quality of the soul…not a function of one’s material circumstances.”

— Aristotle

Setting a good example for my son

I am setting a good example for my son. While he studies at his school laptop, I am working across from him writing on my laptop. He gets to see me working while he works. It encourages him to keep working on his assignment. I am right near him to answer any questions he might have. It seems to work pretty well for encouraging each other.

“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.”

— Mary Lou Retton

I’m learning to multitask

My life is busier now. Before, when my son was in school, I just had to drive him to appointments that were scheduled during the school day for his various therapies, help his grandparents since they don’t drive with their appointments and shopping trips, and spend the rest of the day writing.

Now that I’m busier with making sure my son studies, I find that I’m more efficient with my time. I will spend a couple of hours every day working with him, a couple of hours writing, and reading and being in contact with folks during the day. From the time I wake up until the time go to sleep in my apartment, I’m pretty busy.

It is a blessing to not have a lot of free time to worry about things. The nice thing is I can always take a day off from writing or other projects if I want to rest. The school has set up its days as a Monday, Wednesday and Friday routine. That gives us time to do work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, if we don’t want to grind through every assignment using the three day schedule. Friday is the due date, so it works pretty well like an example of the real world where projects usually come due on certain dates and you have to figure out how to effectively get work done in between deadlines.

“Every day we choose who we are by how we define ourselves.”

— Angelina Jolie

It’s nice not having pressure to look my best

I am transitioning while we are going though this. When I first started, I worried about the awkward stage of changing from masculine to feminine. Now that hair stylists and barbers are shut down, I’m free to continue growing my hair — which is growing really nicely these days. I don’t have to worry about wearing makeup because masks are require wear out and about if I’m going inside a store. Plus, nobody should be touching their face.

I don’t have to worry about fashion because the only stores that are open are utilitarian. The fashion places are shut down — it frees me to just wear jeans, sweats, or t-shirts. It’s more comfortable. And, it solves the awkward in-between phase. Everyone is looking a little awkward and in-between looks these days.

I’m grateful for everything. I wish things were better, but I’m making the best of the hand I’ve been dealt. I’m spending time with my son and my ex and her parents. I have my own apartment to go back to after helping them out with their care giving needs. My son is autistic and his grandparents are in their late 70s.

It is also a blessing that my ex’s parents don’t require any heavy duty care and can live at home.

My ex’s facility is C19 free and they are working hard to keep it that way.

Life can always be better. But, it’s the tough times that always seem to make the great times better. I am positive this is the time when we’ll see big changes in the way that we do things now that we’ve taken the stress test. We’ve seen what works well — neighbors pulling together and people smiling. And, we’ve seen where improvements must be made since this may be a new normal for a while until we develop vaccines and treatments.

Big love to everyone. Lots of love to you and your loved ones. Be healthy, safe, peaceful and happy. I’m grateful you read this. Kisses.💗💗💗

Inspired by Sherry McGuinn’s challenge “Silver Linings” in ILLUMINATION.

Tags to join the “Silver Lining” challenge: Jezebel, Meeta Seth, Blair Fawcett, Dawn Bevier, Kira Dawn, Marla Bishop, Xavier Van Holde, Edward Anderson, BFoundAPen, Brian Fehler, Lori Brown, Christine Stevens, Henery X (long), Simran Kankas, NaNa'sworld, Noma Dek, Christine Graves, Kat Lehmkuhl, Jonica Bradley, Nikolaos Barbaressos, Steven Clifford, Misty R. G. Charles