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In a very short life-changing two weeks, I signed a contract to sell the small office building I have owned and worked in for the last 16 years, sold my 13-year-old Honda and bought an all-electric car, and last, but far from least, sold the baby grand piano I have had for close to 40 years to make room for a home office/studio at our condo.
Changes.
They’re coming.
COVID confined us and perhaps helped us reorganize and prioritize some parts of our lives.
Fingers crossed, this round of COVID will eventually set us free to forge a different way of living. Without question, life is not going to be the same. And, this will not be the last time we will have to hunker down because of a pandemic, wildfires, flooding, or whatever other kind of life-changing event gets thrown our way.
Whether you subscribe to the notion that we are on the edge of an environmental disaster or just think that it’s hot outside, the world around us and the way we live in it is changing. Every day. In real ways. We need to pay attention.
I don’t know anyone who was ready for COVID or who had any idea that it would go on for as long as it has or that it would wreak as much havoc on our lives as it has: working from home, homeschooling, quarantining, canceling plans, staying home, being home, redefining our homes and how we live in them.
It is not what anyone planned for or what we envisioned would be happening. It’s not what we dreamed of.
Any of it. And it’s far from over.
People are now talking about whether or not they want to go back to the office or continue working virtually from home. They are also talking about changing jobs, rebuilding careers, taking early retirement, selling houses, downsizing, continuing to home school or not, and debating whether it’s okay to fly or take a vacation.
Decisions with COVID still lurking around are harder. There’s more to consider. Almost everyone agrees whatever comes next won’t be the same as what came before. Life is definitely different.
Whether you are vaccinated or not, caution seems to be the mode of decision-making these days. Caution, along with confusion. Clarification would be great. A guaranteed future would be frosting on the cupcake. Good luck finding the cupcake!
One thing we have learned over these last long months is that there are no guarantees, and somehow, we have to find a way to deal with the uncertainty of that.
While floundering around after I was doubly vaccinated, I decided I needed to do more than go to the grocery store to re-enter the world outside, so I signed up for the first art class I could find that was in person, not online.
This took me to a local art center and a class on making a tunnel book. Look it up—I didn’t know what it was either. I just knew I needed something new to do.
During the first class, the instructor mentioned that she had recently given up her big studio and downsized to a small cooperative studio, which meant she had to reckon with a lifetime of collecting beautiful handmade papers and art supplies.
I was beginning to wrestle with a similar situation of my own, selling my office/studio and moving my artwork and my writing world to the space my piano once claimed (more on that later), so I was interested in what she had to say and how she managed the change.
During the move, she realized she no longer had to hoard all the beautiful papers and paints she had collected during her lifetime of making art. It was time to let go and use them. Share them. Let them not be so precious.
In fact, we would be using some of her collected papers on our class projects.
I loved the generosity of her idea that the things we have are better used and shared than hoarded.
What is precious in this new life is the moment, the sharing, and the creating.
It’s time to change the way we spend both our riches and our days.
