The Unexpected Benefits of Quarantine

While being shut-in affects each of us differently — I long for my thrift-store outings — and there are deprivations, clearly there are those whose adjustment to quarantine is less traumatic.  For those who spent most of their day at home previously, this time is not that different.  

The Homebound

These are people who normally work from home, who have a physical situation that keeps them within their apartment or house, or those who may even fear the outside world.  They might miss the occasional venture outside, but they are coping with life that is much as they have known it. 

The Introverts

These are the people who prefer their own company to that of others.  They can and do enjoy people but actually like being with themselves and feel perfectly satisfied to engage in solo activities that require no one else.  Reading, writing, gardening, hiking, woodworking, painting, composing — all of these, and more, bring satisfaction without the need for others.

The Driven

These are those out-there-in-the-universe players who work hard and are constantly on the go.  Academics, social bees, Type-A personalities all are used to a driving pace that has them active and committed most of every day, sometimes day and night.  Now, with their calendars forcibly wiped clean there comes either a drift toward anxiety or a glide into great peace.  A freedom to be at home and relish their yards or their kitchens.  An expanse of time to spend with their families in a way they did not have room for before.  

I suspect when this pandemic is over there will be a new normal for many.  

There will be those that won't want to give up their new-found calm and ability to take pleasure in small things and more quiet pastimes.  Others will argue that they were perfectly capable of doing their jobs from their living rooms and don't need to always make that long commute day-in and day-out.  Many will have a greater appreciation for and understanding of connections with family and friends that will no longer want them to take a backseat to the continual demands of work.

Some will even rethink their physical place in the world.  I have a few friends who can't imagine going back to their lives out in their city because they can't picture anything being "normal" again.

With Passover and Easter behind us, and now that we have our new experience with a distanced celebration of these holidays, I find myself grateful. 

Despite divorce and separate households for all four of us, during this time of global crisis we have come together once again — to eat what I have prepared (and complained about as I overcooked the lamb!), to play charades or Jeopardy, to listen to music, and to tell jokes and stories that made us laugh — all at an appropriate distance.

When the quarantine is gone, I am confident and grateful that these gifts will remain.

No, I did not grow these but thank my friend Nancy for this gift of beauty...