#Quarantinediaries - The Thread that Pulled Me Through Lockdown

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May 11

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Selfie reflection

My #Quarantinediaries project started as a personal one. I figured I’d document my household's time in lockdown using words and photos. Then maybe use an online book making program to create a little book to keep for our memories.

For me, if I’m not creating, my world is not as bright. And I’ve been naturally drawn towards writing and photography ever since I was a young ‘un in Middle School. So this project idea seemed to just make sense for me.

In chatting with others about business and some frustration about not being able to move forward with my photo shoots, I came up with the idea to share some of these images on social media. People seemed to like them! My project had taken on a life of its own. The Facebook version was less personal and wordy of course, but gave a peek into my household during lockdown.

#Quarantinediaries was a thread that has pulled me through the lockdown so far. It was a project that has allowed me to focus on my physical area of lockdown as well as ponder the themes that I’ve observed both within myself and within the society around me. I used my family that I live with, my virtual family and friendships, social media, news, essays and even poetry as multiple sources of inspiration for the themes and pictures I’ve posted.

Here's the first of the themes that I presented in the #Quarantinediaries posts on Facebook:

#Quarantinediaries- "Walking the dogs"

Daughter Molly and I are taking long walks with the dogs through the neighborhood lately! Well, maybe a normal thing for us, but what's different recently is that everywhere we walk, we see loads of other people walking two by two, but the streets nearly empty of car traffic. Gyms and businesses are closed, and people are antsy to get out of their houses and move their bodies too. We all wave and smile as we walk past each other (maintaining our social distance, of course). Exercise, fresh air, being friendly and actually seeing your neighbors - it's nice, right?

Piper whining to go on a walk - always ready to go! Especially during my Zoom calls it seems.

Fun in the sun!

Piper is so happy! Our dogs love the quarantine because it means their "pack" is constantly surrounding them. I'm enjoying spending time with my pack as well, even if it isn't the whole pack, just my husband and one of my three adult children. The other two live elsewhere, but are doing well during the quarantine, thank goodness. I hope your pack is well

Piper and her Auntie Maya

The next FB post theme was about how we have been spending our time during the lockdown.

#Quarantinediaries - "Spending Time"

How have you been spending your time so far during the lockdown? I'm genuinely curious. It may be strange, but I've found the enforced lockdown to be an unusual gift that has made me slow down unlike any other time in my life. For me, it's been a time to focus on family connections and some creative ideas that otherwise would be pushed to the bottom of the pile. Here's another little tiny peek into how we've been spending our time lately in our household. Please post some of your pictures in the comments below if you'd like to share...

A time to meditate

Hahaha! Ok, so I faked the whole meditation photo above and cracked up the next second and Molly caught this one. I've have "monkey mind", or a racing mind and have tried to meditate for years without much success. I so admire people who meditate regularly, like my good friend, Marianne Mersereau. So now I do something called Disciplined Mental Practice which I learned from the wonderful Maleah Jacobs.

A time for artwork- Molly doing her digital drawing, often multitasking with watching something on her accompanying computer screen and chatting with her international friends on a different platform.