8 things I’ve learned so far in quarantine

Well well well my merry old friends. What have we here? A post by Abbie?! I don’t believe my own eyes. Surely they are misleading me!!

I have to say that my blog posting has been rather (how shall we put it) lacking as of late. Yes, I admit to it! Life for me has been rather difficult lately and I’ve just not had the time or the energy to write all that much. But despite all odds, my dear friends, here I am. Here to completely plagiarise on every other good blogger out there who has decided to write about lockdown.

Cause let’s face it, folks.

We ARE in a pandemic.

And despite my skepticism at first over whether or not it was all bigged up by the media just to scare us, I am completely certain now that this is NOT A JOKE. People are dying from this illness and we have to do our best to stop more of it happening.

So stay home. Wash your hands for twenty seconds while telling yourself happy birthday. I mean, that’s one of the ups of hygiene, right? Not everyone gets to sing happy birthday to themselves a THOUSAND times a year. 🙂

So let’s get down to the post//

-appreciate friendships

Isn’t one of our easiest faults as human beings is to forget to be grateful? I think it is at least. When you suddenly start to not see anyone – except your postman, your neighbour from fifty feet away, etc – you get a true glimpse of what life would be like if you had no friends. Weird huh? I think it would be downright sad, to be frank.

Okay so I do miss my buds. I really do. And I’m looking forward to meeting them after lockdown, gettin a coffee, comparing books, goin shopping…but actually when you’re separated from something or someone you really care about, you actually appreciate them MORE. You miss them. You wish you were with them. Or they were with you. Or vice versa.

But you get what I mean, don’t you?

Well?! Do you?!

After a time you end up missing them so much that you probably reached the end of your trip or sojourn or whatever by now and you go home back to your homemade mocha or favourite dog or friend group. But for a little time after, you really appreciate them more, don’t you? At least, that’s the way with me. Comment below.

So I think in this unduly unprecedented time, we should really appreciate and LEARN to appreciate the friends in our lives. Have a live chat, send a postcard, pm somebody – anything to remind your friends that you are there for them, that they are not alone and that you care about them. And who knows? Perhaps they will even reply back! 😉

-appreciate family

And here comes the hard one y’all – because who can’t say that sometimes, just sometimes, it can be difficult to get along with your fam. In our house alone we seem to have the tendency to create inter-family feuds. There are no Montagues and Capulets, just everyone bickering like mad! I believe that we so often find ourselves putting up a front of having it all together outside our home; and yet it seems to be that when it’s just all of us put together in one house for three weeks, it’s like a spark in a hayloft. Everything goes up.

Now I’m not saying this happens all the time but when it does there can be…well…*puts hand up to face confidentially*…WILDFIRES. Most of the time we get on great but the hardest bits are when we notice all the littlw annoying things about each other; especially in this situation when you cannot physically leave your own home. But try and concentrate hard on the GOOD aspects of your family and try to help them see yours by trying not to be too…well…annoying, for a start.

I know it’s hard. But we will come through this soon, and though more time with family may seem burdensome it IS a blessing if we choose to see it. Remember to let God be your help when times get tough.

-guitar

I haven’t really got much to say on this one except that I would really recommend it to someone who already enjoys piano or other musical pursuits; playing guitar has really helped me concentrate better mentally and physically, plus if you get a good jam going everyone can sing along! And it hurts your fingers.

A lot.

But hey, all in the name of progress…and education…and cultured-ness (is that even a word?)…and musicality. It will really help you to strengthen your wrists while learning something fun and enjoyable.

-draw the human body (sort of)

Now let’s face it, I’m still learning. But since my art curricula needs me to do a course of some sort to help fellow painters (and for me this is gonna be a big challenge) I’m going to start my own YouTube channel on art soon.

I know! Isn’t it crazy or what?!

So because of all this I’ve been learning trying to draw our complex anatomy. THough in my own style of course; I’m not so advanced that I can draw a picture that actually LOOKS real.

(Look here if you want to see some of that!)

But I’ve been bumbling along in my own way and it’s actually been very interesting, I’ve really enjoyed doing it and practicing my art skills more often. I even ordered a new, 48 piece paint set just for the occasion, and because my other one is getting rather old and flaky.

I would definitely pick up art more if you have never or have already tried it it’s great for relaxing and getting more skilled.

-more archaic literature CAN be really interesting!!

Okay peeps, let’s face it…I’m gonna come clean on this once and for all.

For a long time I went through a phase of disliking older books – for no reason other than I thought they were too long and too boring.

Boy was I wrong.

Have you ever discovered the MAGIC of archaic books? If not, just give it a try. One try. Bronte or Hardy. Kipling or LM Montgomery (she count as older author?). See how you like it. It truly is a sight to behold (now I’m sounding like one). They can be so funny, so adventurous, so thrilling; I think I basically threw them all in the category of Jane Austen who is NOT my thing, and therfore wrote them all off as: DANGER. DO NOT PROCEED. ANCIENT, THEREFORE BORING BOOK AHEAD.

And yet, here we are. And I loved these books and they’re so so funny and fascinating.

Go on.

Take a look.

Inside a book.

-how to saw and cut better

I am not exactly known for having strong arms. But they say that pain is gain – hopefully that is true in my case. I have spent almost a week now in outdoor work and it’s fun but man it’s defintiely hard!! I love the birds singing, the smell of the earth, the sound of the saw biting the wood and the satisfaction of clearing a large area for garden space – but after spending a while in rest due to some medical complications, I forgot how much muscle I must have lost.

It’s been great to renovate the garden though, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

-what we can learn from older generations

Old people are tough. Tougher than you could ever imagine or believe. Thye’ve been through wars, they’ve seen nations rise and fall, they’ve seen people come together and split apart; they queued for rations, they watched the Berlin Wall come down, either in person or on TV; and probably most of all, they’ve had to grow up with OUR generation. Our strange generation.

A generation that seems to survive on Facebook and Instagram and comes up with weird and wacky trends that are here and gone in a few months or years. Hey, some of them were probably lucky to have one full set of clothing to last them a year when they were our age!! It’s such a different perspective on life.

All I can say is, respect these people. We may be in tough times, but they’ve been and are going through so much more than we can imagine. We need to follow their example to keep calm and carry on.

Despite all else.

-how we can prepare for the future

We need to remember to be strong and look ahead in courage once this time is over – but we also need to remember to be more prepared for the future. Buy a little more food with your normal shopping once the lockdown is over, to stock up. Make sure you have things you can control in case something like this happens again. And hardest of all perhaps, learn from your mistakes. No one was really prepared for this, but we can be more prepared in the sfuture.