Social Distancing. Self-Isolation. Quarantine. Whatever you call it, most of us are stuck at home for the foreseeable future.
At the beginning of the month, my kids both had colds, and as the panic over Covid-19 was ramping up, I made an effort to not add to the problem, and decided to keep them home a couple of days until their coughs and runny noses subsided. They were better by the weekend, and I was happy to be able to send them back to school on Monday. Then, on Sunday night, the province closed all public schools. All this is a long way of saying, that in my house, we are on day 15 of social distancing isolation.
These days, most businesses are closed for the next couple of weeks, and we are in the middle of what would have been spring break, so the schools aren’t putting anything out until April to help with the kids education. And since we are doing our part to help #flattenthecurve or #plankthecurve or whatever the hashtag is now, we are finding creative ways to keep busy that involve less screen time, and thus, less fighting.
If you’re in need, I have a few ideas for things to do over the longer term:
Have you ever wanted to transition your hair to only washing once a week, but couldn’t handle waiting out that full week for oil production to slow down? Now you can. Throw on a toque, and let that scalp calm down.
Wanted to play with new ways to do your make up? All of YouTube is there for you. Wanted to try the Curly Girl Method, but don’t usually have time to let your hair air dry? Guess what you have loads of now?
Want to give your skin a break from make up and let it clear? Drink up your water, change your pillow case, and leave the make up bag alone for a couple of weeks.
Now, for the things to actually do with your time while you are letting things percolate in the background:
1) Make Flowers
The kids and I learned to make crepe paper flowers for Ostara, and with Beltane coming up, there is no better time to decorate your house with bright paper beauty.
2) Learn A Craft
I have been seeing tons of beautiful embroidery on youtube and Instagram, and now that there is very little else to do, why not try your hand at something that you’ve always wanted to learn?
The great thing about embroidery and needlework in general is that it is a meditative activity that can help in learning to focus your energy, and each stitch can be a little piece of a spell, allowing the final product to become a powerful amulet for protection, success, health, or whatever else you have need of during this time.
If nothing else, this video is very soothing to watch.
3) Enhance Your Craft
Now is a time of high anxiety and heavy stress for a lot of people, and while it may seem harder to meditate, it is more important now than ever before. Make sure you set aside a few minutes every day to just be. Try to relax, take a moment to count your breaths, focus all of your attention on that one moment. You will thank yourself later.
Beyond that, who among us is truly caught up on all the witchy things that need doing? Smudged your house recently? Is you BOS really where you want it to be? Ever wanted to make a really fancy grimoire like they have on TV? When else are you going to have as much time for it?
If you’re not into anything that intensive, start a container garden. You don’t need much of anything, and spring is on its way. If you don’t have seeds, you can start with kitchen scraps. Did you know that lettuce will regrow if you sit the stalk in a little water and set it by a window?
Kitchen witchery is a great home-based path to explore. Learn to bake bread. All you need is flour, salt, yeast and water. It’s an amazing feeling to knead bread dough with your own hands (even though I realize the recipe I linked is a no knead one, there are lots out there to try), and it will taste better than anything you can buy in the store.
4) Get A Little Exercise
Ever wanted to try yoga? Or have you fallen out of the practise (like me and so many others who lead busy lives)? Drag out that old mat, and dig out your yoga pants (which I am sure we are all wearing anyway).
There are dozens of work out routines available on YouTube from slow flow to high intensity anaerobic moves. Search for what interests you, and let yourself fall down the rabbit hole.
Or, you can make it more fun by finding your favourite musician, clicking on their playlist and having a dance party in your kitchen.
5) Get Social
Just because we have to stay at home, doesn’t mean that we have to lose touch with those we care about. Send a text to a friend, FaceTime your coworkers, use the phone feature on your phone (crazy, I know), and call your parents and grandparents to check in.
Loneliness is going to be on the rise over the next few weeks, and we can all do our part to help fight it. Did you know that Patrick Stewart is reading a sonnet a day on Instagram? Check it out.
Stay safe out there, fam. Be sure to keep washing your hands. Keep a distance of 2 metres (or 6 feet) from other people when you’re outside. Sneeze or cough into your elbow or a tissue (which we should all have been doing before all this, but I digress).
Take care of your mental health. Make self care a priority in your life. This won’t last forever. We’ll get through this. We just have to stick together — figuratively. Literally, we’ll be together at a 6ft distance in groups of no more than 10 (depending on the recommendations of your area — out here in AB, it’s still 50, but that seems like way too many to me). 😉
A Less Travelled Path 