Learning New Ways of Being
We’ve all been exploring new ways of doing things this week, and I have been gratified to experience the creativity and kindness I have seen from friends and neighbors.
Since I am over 60 – way over 60 – and immuno-compromised, I’ve been staying cocooned in my home. My routines have changed, my goals have changed, and challenges have shown themselves to be surmountable. For example, instead of my usual grocery shop on Seniors Day (10% discount) I tried out delivery service from my favorite natural foods store. It went well. I unexpectedly found myself engaged in a text conversation with my personal shopper as she negotiated empty shelves and skillfully selected alternatives to some of my requests. What fun!
Kindness All over the Place
My neighbor at the local feed store delivered a two-month supply of dog food to my front porch, and another who owns a plant nursery placed a 20-pound bag of birdseed and several six-packs of tiny vegetable starts right beside the bags of kibble. This made me happy, and hopefully went a small way toward keeping our small businesses operating.
Several friends and my children who live down the street know I’m missing visits from my granddaughter, and they check in often to see how I’m doing and if I need any errands run. Face-Time brought me her smiling face – and an emotional boost that I really needed.
A favorite vendor at the local farmer’s market, which I didn’t visit today, announced by email that they would deliver boxes of vegetables and salad greens to the selfsame front porch. I put in an order yesterday. I usually buy flowers at the farmer’s market; today instead I ventured into my garden and supplemented the scant number of actual flowers with lavender and sage. Now my living room smells sweet.
Family Connections are Important
Perhaps the most important thing for my mental health is that my whole extended family has made excellent use of technology to keep in touch with me and with one another. FaceTime calls, videos sent by text, frequent phone calls, all have made me feel loved and nurtured, and not too very lonely. I’m going to start a letter writing campaign with each of my four grandchilden; with their parents struggling to keep their littles entertained, perhaps helping them write return messages will serve both sides of the exchange.
How about you? How are you feeling? How are you adjusting to this new normal? I hope you are keeping meaningfully busy and staying in touch with friends and loved ones. If not, this might be the time to write a letter or make a telephone call. We’ve all probably been on the internet too much, and need to connect in some new ways.
Things to Do To Make Us Feel Better
I suspect we’ve all received advice for how to conduct ourselves while sheltering at home: set a daily routine; get plenty of exercise; go outside; walk; connect with others, wash our hands often. Good advice. I add to that, cook or bake, now that you have the time; work the soil in your garden; welcome the spring flowers.Now is the time to work on those projects you’ve wanted to get to but couldn’t; to enoy books, puzzles, quilting, woodworking, whatever usually gets put off in our too-busy lives.
I’ve been trying to prepare meals from scratch every day, even though I live alone. I figure it’s good for my immune system as well as my mental health. So far I’ve made Lemon Chicken Soup and Posole in my InstantPot; Gluten-Free Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day; and several quite good salads and vegetable dishes from recipe books I haven’t opened in a while.
I am grateful that spring is emerging as we are being asked to shelter in place. Better the spring rains than dark skies and heavy rain in winter. And the occasional sunshine makes taking the “go outside and walk” advice easy to follow.
I invented a particularly tasty salad for lunch today – trying to stay ahead of spoilage since I stocked up on veggies over a week ago and my farmer’s market box won’t arrive til next week. You can change up the vegetables and greens, but the idea is crunchy and tasty. I share it with you below. Enjoy!
Marlene
Crunchy Spring Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup crispy lettuce, chopped I used a Little Gem lettuce
- 1/4 cup cucumber, chopped
- 1/4 cup English peas or pea pods, chopped
- 1/4 cup celery, chopped
- 1/2 each tomato, chopped I used a yellow heirloom tomato
- 1 each kiwi, peeled and chopped You can also use plums, peaches, etc.
- 1 Tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tblsp fresh orange, lemon, or lime juice
Instructions
- Chop the lettuce first, and spread it in a shallow bowl.
- Arrange the other ingredients as you wish.
- Toss and eat.
Notes
Welcome to my blog. I am a writer and teacher, a parent and a grandmother. I live on the Central Coast of California with my Border Collie, Kismet. And I am taking this opportunity to slow down, reassess how I spend my time, and clean my closets, both literal and virtual. My memoir of the years my family and I spent off the grid in the 1970s, Back to the Land in Silicon Valley, will be out some time this summer.
I hope you will use the comment section to tell us about you and how you and your family are adjusting to the new normal.
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I love how you are continuing to support your community while at the same time following shelter in place guidelines. Thanks Marlene
Thank you, Laura. I think our local businesses are working very hard to make it easy for us to support them in this challenging time. I’m glad to help.
Marlene,
So great to read your blog.
Nice to see you are doing so well and looking great!
Will look forward to seeing more!
I’m still teaching but only online. Life is good, even during these challenging times
Thanks Marlene. Now my mouth is watering and I’m going to go make a salad.
Excellent, Kate. That’s exactly the response I was hoping for!
Marlene
Thank you Marlene. I continue to be impressed with your way with words. You write from your heart and in a way we can all relate too. We’re doing a lot of the same things you are doing. I’m sorry you don’t have a companion other than your pets to share the day with. I’m thankful to have Sandy around to share the difficulties and challenges during this time. We’re the oldest couple in our court, and our neighbors continually ask us if we need anything whenever they go to the store. We face time a lot with our grandkids to stay in touch, but I miss the hugs. Speaking of hugs, I’ve always been a hugger, so I really miss sharing that emotion with family and friends.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us.
Thanks, Bill. Stay safe and connected!