Lockdown blessings

 1) I'm working out a lot during this time, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day (although I'm also eating my share of comfort food).  I've always worked out fairly regularly, but during these stressful times when I'm feeling particularly depressed, anxious, or unfocused, I tend to turn to working out, sort of "this day feels wasted but at least I can move".  And I continue to love to put on music and dance my ass off. 

2) Sweet Hubby and I have always had a strong marriage, but it's only in the past 7 months (7 months!?!?) that we've been together so consistently.  He used to go to work, and I used to travel or go out with friends quite a lot.  Now it's pretty much all us all the time.  And I've discovered that our marriage is just as strong, just as fun, just as good as it has always been, and perhaps even stronger because we are doing a good job accompanying one another through this chaotic, emotional era as well as through the years of aging.  My parents always used to say "Marry someone whose conversation and company you enjoy", but during those years when I was juicy and hormonal, conversation wasn't as important as I've come to see it is.  Infatuation is brief.  Good company can be forever.

3) We do some take-out to support local businesses, but we eat in most of the time, and I'm getting a kick out of trying new recipes from the 31 recipe books taking up space in the kitchen.

4) I've worn my hair the same for a long time, but now I'm letting it grow out and get to see how it looks as different lengths.  I always felt I needed to keep it the same so it matched my headshots, but with one rare exception, there are no auditions coming my way, so I can look pretty much any way at any time.  there may be a new look waiting for me at the end of this lockdown.

5) More reading time.

6) This doesn't seem like a blessing right now, but I believe in the long run it will be one.  Trump didn't create the fanaticism, discord, divide, hysteria, dissatisfaction, racism, xenophobia now on such noisy and prominent display in this country, although he is a master at stirring it up, giving it a megaphone and a spotlight, being the cheerleader.  And because it has been stirred up, his term in office has opened all our eyes to how many unhealed wounds we have tried for so long to ignore, wish away, hide from.  There's no hiding now.  There's no denying.  There are serious problems, inequities in our society that must be dealt with.  Let's hope they can be dealt with in a way that actually looks for solutions and healing rather than being used as a means to win power.

7) Clearing out shelves and drawers and boxes, organizing, letting go of (although it's not easy right now to know where to pass the let go stuff to).

8) Zooming with family members regularly and with friends often.  My sibs and I used to be in touch pretty much as needed or on whim.  Now we Zoom every week, a time I always look forward to and cherish.  And I take part in two game Zooms a week, a writing group Zoom bi-weekly, and another writing group Zoom monthly.  I would feel a whole lot more isolated, a whole lot more depressed without these wonderful, uplifting sessions.

There are probably even more reasons that this time is a blessing and not a curse, or not just a curse.  I try not to take it for granted that SH and I are getting through this fairly easily, without children to educate and entertain, without parents to worry about, without jobs to lose or struggle to keep.  For some people. there is probably a lot more curse than blessing.  So I try to be conscious and grateful every day.  As the man was heard to say at each floor as he fell from the top of a skyscraper: "So far so good."