10 Ways my life has improved since March 2020 (Part 1)
Many have spent the last 28 months complaining about gathering limits, mask-wearing, vaccines, not being able to hug, limited mobility, and countless other pandemic-related beefs. COVID19 initially caused me a lot of stress and I’ve written about that along with the struggles I had emerging in summer 2021. I feel lucky though that the last two years have provided me with such richness too. I hope my Pollyanna’ishness in this piece won’t be too irritating. And I hope it can inspire you to consider the good things that have emerged for you.
10. Walking
I’ve always been a walker. Then I got dogs. And then it got more intense when I started to walk to raise money for the cancer hospital.
But the events of March 2020 made walking as routine as eating. It also made walking an acceptable social outing, replacing restaurant meals, movies, theatre, and just about everything else. Day or night, alone, with dogs, or with a friend, the mental, physical, emotional, and financial benefits of walking cannot be overstated.
Since March 2020, I have walked the distance to Vancouver and back, but staying within three kms of my own house!
(if you’d like to donate to my cancer fundraising this year, please click here.)
9. New and changed friendships
Pre-COVID, I spent time IRL with many friends. Geographic distance meant I would engage with some by phone, email, or even in some cases, snail-mail. But I’d met all my go-to people in person at some point. And the unstated goal for the long-distance friendships was always to get back to in-person one day.
COVID changed all of that. I now count as friends, Torontians and far-far-flung people alike, whom I’ve met through my writing group, on Twitter, in research groups, and through work. Zoom and social media are terrific ways to connect and meeting remotely allows for some closer connections, since the mundaneness of daily living is removed from the equation (even if I don’t know how tall these new friends are). I’ve had countless happy dinners with Twitter.
Those prior friendships that have continued - not all have - have intensified. As we’ve found new ways to hang out involving social distance and being outside, we’ve also shared laughs, life stories, anxieties, and a sense of collective action for the greater good.
8. Fridge management
I have become the queen of food usage, minimizing waste. I wake up thinking about how to ensure crisp greens aren’t reduced to liquid browns (fun fact - if you wrap them in a tea towel in the crisper, they last much longer) and how to repurpose leftover chicken so it’s fresh and interesting.
In the old days, I spent a chunk of every Saturday restocking. It was a ritual - off to Superstore with hoards of others, going up and down every aisle, reading People magazine in the check-out line, and eating a small bag of Sour Cream ’n Onion Ruffles on the way home. Then I’d shift around the uneaten stuff in my fridge from last week, toss some, and reload the new, ready to start the process again.
Now I pick up an order curb-side every four weeks, get regular deliveries from FoodShare, and supplement with treats from local butchers, markets, and purveyors of fine cheese. When it gets boring, I order from a meal prep company or pickup from a restaurant. And of course, now it’s summer, I’m pulling what I can from my garden. I’m eating better than I ever have. And I feel good, both physically and for the planet.
7. Improved physical flexibility
In the years leading up to COVID, I spent a remarkable amount of time at my local clinic having my body massaged, physio-ed, poked with acupuncture needles, and adjusted by a team of wonderful women who became my friends.
The uncertainty of the future in March 2020 made me consider how I would ever manage the chronic back issues associated with 30+ years in an office chair, and whether my knee would ever fully bend again, damaged in some known incident, likely involving the dogs.
On March 14, 2020, I began a daily morning stretch. Just 10-15 minutes on a yoga mat. Nothing fancy. For the first few months, I worried I’d pull the closet wall down using it to hoist myself from the floor. Incrementally, my knee started to do the work of its much younger self and now I can rise from savasana like a normal person. I have been to the clinic a few times but mostly to have social contact. I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I have done them out of the sizable income stream my insurer provided them. Feels good to know I may have prevented a knee replacement. I’m now working to stretch the hamstrings that are probably not genetically designed to be slightly shorter than my actual legs. Work in progress.
6. Appliance changeover
Confession - I really hate cleaning. At age 25, with barely enough money to pay rent and do things 25 year olds do, I hired myself a cleaning woman. Worth every penny. Why? Good question - maybe I don’t feel confident in my ability to either see or get rid of dirt. Maybe I don’t actually like to get dirty. Maybe I want someone else to blame if someone else sees dirt in my house. There are so many other things to do, I just don’t want to waste time doing this.
As the pandemic hit, I was crushed by the weight of the task that lay ahead — having no-one in my house meant NO CLEANING WOMAN. (first world problem of epic proportions, but if I can’t confess it in my own blog, then where?) For a while the weight immobilized me. I lived in near-filth. Not squalor - I’m pretty tidy - but actual dirt. With two dogs and (then) a cat, “clean” has always been an adjective best used in the hours just after the cleaner has been onsite. With her gone, “clean,” a decent Wordle guess, has not really applied to my life.
I also stopped some other domestic activities, like ironing, a thing I’ve only ever done in bursts, mostly to make the table linens crisp for parties. I suspect there’s a decent chance I will never get the ironing board out again. I certainly haven’t in over 2 years.
But as the iron gets dusty, I’ve acquired other small appliances. The Dustbuster is every lazy homeowner’s dream - you can suck up just that dust bunny and nothing more. No hauling anything out of closets. No big ordeal. The Bissel SpinWave has completely changed my floor cleaning. No mops, buckets, scrubbing. Just 10 minutes and the whole kitchen is bright and sparkly. Ten minutes after it dries, it’s got dog drool, paw prints, and garden dirt. No problem — I will do it again in a week. (I am still not overdoing the cleaning, despite the upgraded tools)
Stay tuned to next week’s blog for the remaining five. And please share some of your high points in the comments section!
