71. What We'll Carry – Clifford Thompson

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One good thing about that, she said, is that she has been reading a lot of books. She has always enjoyed reading, but often she just doesn’t get the chance. Now she does.

Earlier this week I talked on the phone with my sister, who is in my hometown, about 250 miles from me. I haven’t seen her in person since January, and with the pandemic, I’m not sure when I will see her next. I miss her, but it was great to talk to her. I asked what she’d been up to. She said that in the quarantine, she still gets work done, but there are some things she can’t do from home, and so there are times when there isn’t much to do. One good thing about that, she said, is that she has been reading a lot of books. She has always enjoyed reading, but often she just doesn’t get the chance. Now she does.

Yesterday my wife observed that during the quarantine, she and I had spent more time planning meals together than at any other time during our 28-year marriage.

All through this, I have spent many evenings painting, as I did before the quarantine, as I hope to do after. This image may in some way have been inspired by the conditions of the past three months.

Like everyone, I want things to go back, as much as possible, to what they were before. I don’t know when that will happen, or if it will completely. But there have been little things—like planning menus with my wife—that I hope will survive the return to normal life.

– Clifford Thompson

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Prompt:

What do you hope to carry forward from the quarantine? It need not be as concrete as reading or planning menus or painting. Sometimes the intangible is the most real.


Flynn

Location: Stuart, Florida
About: This is how I feel about moving forward.
Age: 59

Through The Wringer

Take aways... 

The stuff goes into the washing machine. You add some other stuff. Detergent. You run it through the cycles, maybe you add a little softener, another cycle, rinse, and then spin dry. You move the stuff into the dryer for however long that takes, and it drys. You take the stuff out. It's cleaner, and, hopefully, with no noticeable stains.




It's the same stuff that went into the washing machine, but it's not exactly the same as when it went into the washing machine. With luck, nothing went drastically wrong in the wash; everything is a bit cleaner, of course. That's the main reason why you washed it. The colors might've faded a bit, not necessarily noticably, but they're changing. They wash out over time. Happens with everything. 

Some things aren't the same size. Not as stretchy, but they usually come back when you wear them. 




So it's all pretty much the same, yet slightly different. Ready to be folded and put away. 




That's me, on the other side of quarantine. Ran through the cycles. A little cleaner, a little washed out. Softened. Not as stretchy. Unnoticeably faded. Nothing went drastically wrong. No stains. The same, but not exactly the same. Dry. Ready to be folded and put away. 

And, also, I'm missing a sock. 

Where the hell do they go, anyway?


Julie Ocken

Location: Portland, OR
About: Life is about learning and growing and adapting... without that, we die. there is so much to learn and carry forward at any time, but the intensity of these days makes learning and growing that much more important.
Age: 43

connection.

kindness.

awareness.

integrity.

growth. 

the list is more of an overlap between heading into month 4 of COVID-19 quarantine and the intensity around Black Lives Matter and anti-racism. but that’s the time we’re in. it's June 10, 2020. 

it’s also really curious that i started with connection. i mean, it’s been 3 months since i had a hug (or sex) or was anywhere close to that physical connection with a human. and... i’m really connecting so much more with my family and friends. and coworkers. yet everything is so disconnected physically. i feel more connected to some of the gym girls than ever. to my parents, however upsetting those calls can be. to friends i periodically see — and those who are 3000 miles away... because distance means nothing and everything right now. to my siblings, particularly my sister, which is so sweet. to random Tinder boys for a couple days. ha. 

kindness. amid the tension and strains of both being at a distance and the intensity of everything in response to George Floyd’s murder (and so many other Black lives lost to intentional [police] brutality), people are being kind with each other. not friendly — but truly kind. saying we’re thinking about each other. checking in on people we may not have connected with in a while. opening meetings and emails not with the “let’s get to it” agenda, but with compassion and awareness of what’s going on in the world... not just the tangible things that need to get done. people around the world live this way so much better than we do here. 

awareness. of my words and actions and the world around me. i always think i have been aware. and i’ve been wrong about that in so many ways. i've often been aware of my different- ness to others. but much of mine is self-imposed. i'm sad and uncomfortable and concerned. my eyes, heart, and mind are totally open. or more open than before. 

integrity. now more than ever. and synchronously it’s my 2020 word of the year — something i never have done. until this January. 

growth. there is so much to learn. of course, there always is. in this moment though, i feel like i can grow so much more than i feel like i have. about disease. anti-racism. about trying to find balance in everything — personal, professional, mind-oriented, heart-oriented. 



carrying forward all the goodness from this crazy, intense, stressful time. 


Lorelle Mariel Murzello

Location: Mumbai, India
About: My name is Lorelle and I am a Teacher-educator, researcher and writer from Mumbai, India. The Isolation Journals has been that window to my soul and helped me understand this (crazy!) world and my place in it!
Age: 25

What I carried

Not too long ago…

But also only a lifetime ago,

The coronavirus was visiting

Now they couldn’t travel alone

So with them came lockdown, quarantine and social-distancing


At home I was, so was the rest of the world.

Staring at my laptop for work, party and leisure


My routine used to be my husband

But I guess I had to get that divorce

One month you’d see me doing 6 am workouts

And one month you’d notice some 2 am disco

What I carried from this time

Are those day-time naps

The contentment I felt

drawing my house-map


The introspection that came

With journaling time

And all the con-call parties

With bread and wine


The slow mornings

That helped me make peace with lazy

And all those recipes

That will surely help me win Masterchef Andheri!


We’ve moved past the time that was sad, dark and dreary

But these are the few things that I have carried!


Terry Jago

Location: Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
About: Retired nurse with a passion for writing. this post was inspired by what we will carry forward from this time of isolation.
Age: 69

I am carrying forward from Quarantine an extra ten pounds. I have been playing the weight off weight on game for several years, and managed to be on the downswing till Christmas, Hawaii, and Covid came upon me. 

I am carrying forward a new appreciation for my freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted. I appreciate the ability to travel, to visit, to see my family and friends so much more, after being denied it.

I am carrying forward a new appreciation of how my past shaped my present and my future. I am renewed by the value of family stories to understand ourselves.

 I am carrying forward the importance of keeping in touch with the people I care about, whether by Zoom or texts or phone calls.

I am carrying forward a new resolve to work on my writing skills, thanks to association with this group and the Pandemic University classes. I am not sure where that goes, but I am realizing the purpose in writing for me.

 I am carrying forward a new sense of social justice, with the resolve to make a difference, if only in my small world, or my province or my country.

I am carrying forward a list and a pile of books that I may never have the time to read. My Amazon Prime wish list and order list is full.

I am carrying forward the love and appreciation for my Isolation Journal friends and our leader Suleika, who encouraged me in my stories, and who encouraged, empathsized, us all with song, poetry, prose and immeasurable talent and kept us going.

I am (hopefully) leaving behind an obsession with the numbers on the TV, with American news, and fear and discouragement that went with that.

I am leaving behind a baker’s dozen of Facebook “friends” who sought to insult my intelligence and invade my feed with conspiracy theories and unbelief.

I am leaving behind fear, for it seems in the last month that cloud of uncertainty and loneliness and fear had enveloped my world. I move forward knowing that I can move safely in my world, and choose the risks allowed to me.

move forward – and that is the most important thing of all.