Answering the Challenge

What To Do When You Can’t Run Or Hide Any More

3 things I have rediscovered since the lockdown began.

Okay, I can’t run anymore. I can if I want to ignore everyone and keep doing what I do most of the time, which is to hide from everyone and live in my world of thoughts and ideas. I like it there.

But the fact remains that us introverts are just as interdependent as anyone else. No man is an island, as the saying goes.

Several friends and writers have tagged me to write about the three things I have rediscovered during this lockdown. I have been avoiding it, not because I don’t have anything to share, but because rediscovering these things that I enjoy having kept me very busy.

Time with family

Reading, Writing, and Photography

Nature and Outdoors

Time with Family

I have been living in my Mobile Domicile for almost nine years now. Which means I am Happily Homeless. I travel when I want and stay in one place if that’s what I want. In the past three years, I haven’t done any traveling. I have been hanging out in Houston, where I have a family. My children and their mother live here. Also, I have extended family in the area as well.

While I have been in the area with family around, I was, for the most part, living independently. My small RV has everything I could need. I was using my gym to take care of my hygienic needs. My spiritual community center here allowed me to have a place where I could socialize as well as practice prayers and meditation.

With the stay-in lockdown, my gym had to close down temporarily, and that could have created a challenge. My children and their mother came to the rescue, offering me the use of their apartment. Both of my children are grown-ups, but they’re living at home in the traditional manner of an Indo-Pak family.

For the past month or so, I have parked my Mobile Domicile in their apartment complex. My name is still on the lease even though I haven’t lived here for nine years, and my wife and I have never filed for a divorce, and we are more civil to each other now than when we lived together.

I still get to sleep in my bed inside my Mobile Domicile at night, but now I get to contribute to the groceries and eat home-cooked meals. The kids request me to cook the foods they remember I used to cook when I lived at home, and I help out with the chores as well. My daughter is working from home. She is the only one currently “employed.” The rest of us are either self-employed or contract workers in industries where we cannot work.

I am enjoying reconnecting with my children. We play board games now and then, and I go walking with my daughter just about every day. It’s fun helping my wife with cooking, something I enjoy doing and miss since I moved out.

Reading, Writing, and Photography

Those are the three activities I have always used as my hobbies as long as I can remember. Every online profile I filled out contained those three things. They are an integral part of who I am.

With all the time in the world, and unable to “work,” I am reading and writing a lot more. I never was much of a TV viewer, even when I lived at home. Even though my RV came with a TV and VCR, when I bought it three years ago, I have never used it. So, I spend most of my time reading and writing.

In the past 30 days, I have written more than I can remember ever writing and published 50 stories on Medium, most of them on #ILLUMINATION. I have also been reading, about four to five hours every day, and enjoying every bit of it.

Photography is something I haven’t done as much as I would like. Well, I haven’t done much at all. Just a couple of days ago, I was telling my daughter that I need to take out my camera and start taking pictures whenever we go for our walks. We go to the neighborhood park just around the corner from the apartment complex. Next time, I may play with my camera while she walks.

Nature and Outdoors

I am not a homebody. I love outdoors and connecting with Nature is my religion. Islam teaches that there are signs of God’s existence and magnificence in all the natural phenomena. What better way to communicate with the Divine than to be outdoors. I love it. That’s why I go to the park for my walks. Of course, I practice all the necessary precautions when I go out these days.

When working on my computer, I sit outside in the little enclave in front of the apartment and enjoy the fresh air. Luscious greenery abounds here. We had chosen this townhomes community years ago because of its natural environment.

My wife walks around in the mornings with a humongous bowl of bird seeds, breadcrumbs, and cat food to make sure that all the critters around are well fed. Squirrels are always running around, chasing each other, and having fun. We also have a few cats that hang out in the yard. They come up to the front door in the evenings, so I feed them. All day long, I see blue jays, cardinals, robins, and even woodpeckers swoop down to steal the cat food.

In the last couple of days, I have worked late into the night and saw a couple of raccoons come by to nibble on leftover cat food. Now I keep some extra cat food with me so I can feed whoever shows up. The cats and raccoons were very skittish at first, but now they are comfortable coming up to the steps. Of course, any sudden move on my part has them scurrying into the bushes. It is such a rewarding and spiritual experience when we connect with Nature.

The Final Word

Life has been a bliss since the lockdown began. I have been unemployed before and for more extended periods than this. Things are different this time around. I feel peace and joy the way things are. Mother Nature has set her foot down and said, “Enough is enough. Get your acts together while I practice some self-care, and know that it includes you as well.”

We are being forced to pause and reflect; to self-evaluate and prioritize our lives. If we fail to do so, it won’t be too long before we get slapped again. Next time, it will be even harder, and it will continue until we learn the lesson that we are a part of the whole. We can’t act like a cancer cell that goes on a rampage of killing other cells around and kills itself in the process.

I almost forgot to pick on a few people. Priyanka Srivastava Dipti Pande Indra Raj Pathak Salam Khan Truenorth and Simran Kankas, the ball is in your court.

As always, thank you for reading and responding.

More about me and my work:

Rasheed Hooda is a regular contributor to #ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium, where writers support each other to grow and prosper.

He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Join the Tribe)

“You can let others tell you what it means to be successful, or you can decide it for yourself.”