My breath is challenged by the pace of the world,
as if it's following suite or falling into step beside it...
enough to leave me panting,
gasping for air.
And yet, my breath is nothing like that.
It is surprisingly calm,
with the occasional deep sigh and accompanying shoulder shrug.
There is something grounding and reassuring in this reposed rhythm.
It is the only thing I am absolutely sure of...
I will continue to breathe.
I cannot not breathe.
No matter how erratic the world may be,
​I will continue to breathe.

I hardly know where to begin.
​March began like it usually does and I pottered like I usually do, though perhaps slightly more distracted.  I was visited by a strange and unsettling restless energy for a week or two, which disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, by which time it was mid-month and the corona buzz was taking firmer hold.
Whatever plans I had quickly changed.

​ENORMOUS changes have taken place in a very short time frame. Covid-19 restrictions are happening quickly everywhere. Most of the planet has shut down and we are in some form of isolation or lockdown. Life as we know it has been cancelled or postponed.  Only some are still working and movement is restricted to the essentials.  Social distancing, hygiene measures and staying home are our new norms. 
In fact, globally, people are at home in self-isolation, our homes are our refuges until further notice.
So many have lost their jobs.  My library shifts have finished until further notice, so I'm fortunate to still be teaching, though on site hours are reduced and remote learning has begun online. 

​The economical repercussions of this are beyond HUGE.
Businesses everywhere are reinventing how they provide their services.  Despite the challenges, people are imagining creative new ways to survive, the biggest challenge being that we have no idea how long it will be for...6-12 months possibly.

​Being able to connect online is allowing some to keep working, for communication and learning to continue and for social and leisure time to help ease frustration and anxiety.  Like many, I could not have imagined experiencing anything like this.  Thoughts of all those dystopian novels I've read hover in my mind.

​Feels like a universal karmalution, yet strangely it's not all doom and gloom.  I can't speak for everyone, but I know many of us are safe, sound and comfortable.  Our basic needs are covered, we have the company and support of loved ones around us and more time than we wanted to breathe, catch up and learn how to do things differently.

A & A are back home for an undetermined period. The focus for now is one day at a time, doing our best to live in close quarters, being kind and making the most of our forced isolation. Plenty of time to be creative...once I can stop feeling overwhelmed!

Week one - 30/03/2020
  
   Take as much time as you need and have fun!
​
📷 Describe your breath
Take around 5-10 minutes, lie down, close your eyes, let everything go and simply, but consciously, breathe. Breathe fast, breathe slowly, breathe deep. Take time to listen to and feel your breath, how it makes your insides and outsides feel, how it affects you. Slowly open your eyes, stretch and sit up. When you are ready, grab a pen and paper and describe your breath.

📷 The A to Z of my body
Begin by brainstorming together to find a vocabulary of the body. Using the document provided, each person adds a word until the abecedaire is complete. Any letters remaining are filled in individually, in this way we have some words in common. For each word, write a small paragraph of 4 or 5 lines, or filling the space provided.
Complete an acrostic with the word BODY, using the corresponding words and writing from your ABC list...which will hopefully give you a random yet interesting text.
​
📷 Hands
Trace around your hand, decorate it and describe your relationship with your hand.
 

After the glorious holidays, my body settles back into busy-ness and the rhythm of daily routine with a few extras.
​I have picked up a Tafe course learning Auslan Australian Sign Language, 2 nights a week, which is fascinating and as tricky as any language.  I am also making myself go to the gym (I'd much rather be dancing).  Sleepiness and soreness, my new state of being. 
My hobbies and interests are all quite sedentary and the older we get the more important it becomes to maintain health and fitness. So I'm making an effort, hoping it will pay off.

​Training healthy habits isn't easy. I'm somewhat of a night owl and very susceptible to getting caught up in the in-between tasks.  I've spent more time online this month doing Writey-oh, a creative writing workshop with Pip Lincolne, from meetmeatmikes.wordpress.com  It definitely got me writing, which I love and also thinking.  What I enjoyed the most was the sense of nurturing I received being part of this group, sharing our thoughts and ideas, knowing we aren't alone

​There is something wonderful about staying up to ridiculous o'clock with your nose planted in a book you don't want to stop reading.  It's a combination of excited-ness, comfort, gratitude and innocent mischief, mingled with sleepy frustration when your eyelids start closing, you re-read the same sentence repeatedly and have to give in to slumber with only a few pages to finish.  Authors will never cease to amaze and surprise me...I am forever awe struck by the sensations that engulf me via other peoples words.