It's All in Your Point of View

 

           

The word of the day is: CONFINEMENT.

I was part of an interesting discussion about confinement yesterday in my virtual art class (our group meets once a week on ZOOM). Most of us are feeling the pinch of being old enough to need to avoid the Covid 19 virus because of our age / physical conditions, we do not venture out of the house unless we absolutely have to. Some days the isolation really bugs us and sometimes we fall into depression as a result. Other days we get on a roll with our artwork and don't notice the passage of time as we dip our paintbrushes or apply our pastels to paper, bringing beautiful pictures to life. Those days are the best.

THE BOOKCASE

We talked about the ways we deal with the loneliness, and the subject of Anne Frank came up. She and her family lived in fear of their lives from Nazi invaders for over 2 years, confined to a hidden space in a house that was accessed by stepping behind a hinged bookcase. It's a classic and inspiring true story, because in spite of it all, this young girl had a positive outlook and did not let                                                                                                   the fear and isolation defeat her. 

In addition to confinement, they had to keep completely still and quiet during the daytime, and didn't dare go near the windows in the building for fear of being seen. One noise could betray them all to the Nazis, which meant certain death. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                    ANNE'S BEDROOM

Before I retired I would daydream about what it would be like to not have to go to work every day. Often my visions included warm summer days, cold fruity beverages, naps in a hammock, happiness, and not a care in the world. The combination of retirement and a Covid lockdown has certainly shattered those visions with the ice water of reality. My way of coping includes lots of reading, knitting, playing with our dogs, cooking, housekeeping, and finally succeeding in achieving the control of my blood sugar to consistently healthy levels. Most days my strategies work, some days get downright difficult - it is what it is. I try hard to keep a positive attitude and I meditate, reminding myself to stay in this moment - it helps.

This week I'm going to check out 'The Diary of Anne Frank' and read it again. Brighter days are coming. I've spotted big flocks of robins in the area, spring isn't far behind. 

Any comments are welcomed!

Thanks for stopping by, take care of you and yours.    

 Carol in Tennessee

A New Year's Eve Story

 

A New Year's Eve Story

Who has a story from New Year's Eve to share? Here's mine...

New Year's Eve 1999 - Our boys were out with their friends doing what boys do, so Tom and I stayed in for a quiet evening at home. We had a couple of bottles of champagne in the fridge and I'd picked up these 'collectible' party items for all of us, as the turning of a century seemed like a big deal.

And it was a huge deal! Prince had released that famous song about partying like it was the end of the world. People everywhere thought all of the world's computers would shut down when the date rolled over from 1999 to 2000, do you remember all that hysteria? We expected to lose our electricity when the power grids shut down! There were doomsday people taking shelter underground and corporations with contingency plans and lord knows what else. Nobody really could say exactly what would happen......

Ever the optimists, we were in the living room listening to Jimmy Buffett's live New Year's Eve performance over the web, drinking our champagne, had the flashilights ready just in case - and had a box of roman candles to shoot off in the street at midnight. We were ready.

When midnight arrived and Jimmy shouted 'Happy New Year' we went out into the street with an empty bucket and our roman candles feeling really good now that 2 bottles of champagne had been consumed. Tom put the first candle into the bucket, lit it, and off it zoomed into the night sky of a brand new year! He reloaded, and I was commenting 'you know, we need to be careful not to shoot this into the woods, they are so dry this year' when the bucket fell over and the colorful fireballs headed straight for the edge of the very dry woods that surround our house. What!!!

Of course all the leaves and pine straw caught the flame in a flash and our laughter died in our throats. Yikes! we tried to stomp it out but it was spreading too fast. He ran for a rake and I ran for the garden hose that was all the way behind the house. Suddenly we were not laughing any more, afraid of burning down the neighborhood! Sobriety was apon us!

We got the fire put out, thankfully. And stood there in the dark looking at each other like 'what did we just do!?!' That was our welcome to the new century.......thank you, Jimmy Buffett!

What's your story about that night?

- Be Safe, Take Care of Each Other