Dear Quarantine…don’t go

I loved Covid. Not the actual covid but the feelings and atmosphere that it brought to my life. My prayers are always with those that lost a loved one during covid so I don’t want to forget the lives lost but I also want to acknowledge the parts of quarantine that I want to keep forever. Dear Quarantine….please don’t go.

Dear quarantine…don’t go

You have taught me that less is more. I don’t need all the jeans I just need all the tops to go with 5 pairs of jeans.

You have taught me the power of laziness. I no longer want to grocery shop and I haven’t seen the inside of a Walmart in months.

I have learned that I love sweats. I thought at one point that I wanted to dress up more and be different but nope….I realize that sweats are beautiful and it’s time to embrace that fully

I love my personal space. I have space in my closet, my car (which is in my garage and I escape to it all the time to eat, read, and hide from the kids), and in my bedroom which I didn’t get to see a lot of. You know how you always sleep in the bedroom but don’t really enjoy the other parts like the recliner that I had to learn how to work because I never used it.

The schedule. Look I don’t know about you but being able to stay in bed and not have to rush and get kids to school or not having to clock in at a certain time was beautiful. My job allowed us to come in later and I was loving the no birthday parties and stuff to do on the weekends. My weekends were empty and I loved it.

You also taught me how to cook other things besides the norm. I enjoyed introducing a new dish every Monday around here and now…I haven’t cooked anything new in a while because things are getting back to normal.

I love the masks. It helped me remain even more anonymous. Being incognito to nosy neighbors, school folks, and others made me feel special. No one noticed me and I could wear the same outfit twice lol. I also loved the masks because not one of us got a cold over the winter and allergies were kept at bay. Oh, how I loved that I didn’t have to take any allergy meds.

No pressure. I loved that I didn’t have to do anything because there was nothing to do or nothing to demand my time like dance. Dance did pick back up towards the end of covid but last year I was free. I also didn’t have to commit to any meetings and I didn’t have to see people in person which I will always love because I’m an introvert

The gratefulness. I loved this the most. I was grateful that no harm came to any of my family members or friends. I was happy that we had food to eat and my money didn’t look funny. I was truly grateful for this and I gotta take a second to have a praise break.

I want to keep all of the above as we enter back into life. It’s still scary out there now that businesses aren’t requiring masks. I mean they want you to have an honor system but really who is doing that. I recently went to Savannah and no one had on masks. I felt like the oddball out there. I want to keep my same routine but know that life has to get back to some type of normal….whatever that is. My goal is to continue to have pieces of the above as much as I can. Take some things off my plate, say no to more events, cook quicker foods, buy less, etc. I also plan on being that introvert with her masks on for as long as needed.

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What did you learn during the quarantine? What parts of it do you want to keep or let go of?