Sheltering in Place

The parallels between boat life and current living circumstances with COVID-19 are hard for me to miss.  For ten years, Rick and I lived aboard s/v High Country, during which time we were accustomed to stocking up on all items because access to goods and services were uncertain.  Contact with the outside world was often limited, as technology was not what it is today.  And we lived with uncertainty as a regular part of our life.  When your life is dependent on the weather and your wits, it makes this fact of life more apparent.  In particular, I remember being in Grenada, weeks after a fateful hike into Grenada's jungle, when we both came down with Dengue Fever.  We had just pulled High Country into a tiny harbor to check out as a possible hurricane refuge when the fevers hit.  No other boats were in the harbor and we were left to our own devices.  We did communicate via that old reliable, single sideband radio, with friends in a neighboring harbor, who were able to send a doctor out to the boat for a check.

This experience though, differs from boat life in that I have way more room to move about, I can connect with people either on the web or on hikes, and I have plenty to do!  I wasn't going to plant a large garden this year because I'm still in graduate school, but I've changed my mind and will be back to it this spring.  I am still expected to work from home, which is giving me a gift of time to do many of the projects I've meant to do for school for years.  And hopefully I will be able to reach some of my students online and deliver virtual tutoring, 1:1 tutoring, a gold standard not often possible in the regular school setting.

I'm waking this old blog up to stay in touch with everyone and to share my experiences (will work on changing some old things up soon, like our bio!).  Not everyone in my life is on Facebook, and I don't particularly care for the Facebook format.  One of the best things we can do during this time is to stay in contact with friends and family and to share our experiences.  Life is changing at such a rapid rate, it's hard to keep up sometimes and it can feel awfully scary.  This is a great time to strengthen current relationships and re-ignite older ones that may have gone out.  I feel incredibly lucky that I get to shelter in place with Rick and our two dogs, Scallion and Luka (RIP Spud).  I'm grateful that I have delicious food to fill my belly.  I'm grateful to have friends, family, and colleagues to talk to and brainstorm with.  I'm grateful to have meaningful work that I can still do, to be useful to society.  I'm grateful for a mindfulness practice already in place to help in these uncertain times.  I'm grateful for my health and fitness.  And with that, I'm off for a run!  Ragged Mountain, here I come!