The Art of Living and Writing (Vol VI, Issue 2)

Published: Fri, 03/27/20

Dear Readers,

What a challenging few weeks this has been for all of us, adjusting to the havoc the COVID-19 Pandemic has made of our lives! But that is also one of the few good things about this: That it literally affects all of us.

A month ago my husband and I were still going back and forth on whether we should go on our planned trip to Germany and Israel. We would have been in Jerusalem this week! Thankfully one of his best friends is an ICU doctor, working for the Health Department in Munich. He saw this pandemic coming and told us not to travel. I'm glad we listened!

In the meantime we moved to our country home in Indiana. Our college/grad school kids have all joined us, and it feels like a throwback to high school times. We are immensely grateful that we have this retreat. However, I have yet to find a few quiet moments! It’s taken us the two weeks we’ve been here to set up the house to be comfortable for five people long term, buy enough supplies, reroute all kinds of stuff, etc. Like many others, I also have to keep my day job going doing communications for my kids' former school. Hopefully, now that the Indiana Governor’s Shelter-at-Home Order has gone into effect, things will settle down a bit.

I typically don't get flustered easily but this situation has given me anxiety. I have found it hard to write, i.e. actually creating something. It is hard to focus; so much is going through my mind!

These days we're full of fear and nevertheless have to manage our daily lives. So, amidst all of this, my advice is:

My student Stephanie's COVID-19 Pandemic diary

Keep a COVID-19 diary. We're living through a historic moment, "epic" as my kids used to say. Events pile onto each other, and we will forget the details. For more on that, see my blog post:

One Important, Mindful, Calming and Life-Affirming Thing You Can Do During this Challenging COVID-19 Pandemic: Keep a Record

Here are a few ideas on how to do that:

a classic handwritten journal (see above)
a sketch book (or include sketches in your journal like Stephanie did)
collect all the pandemic jokes you receive (an online photo album might work well for that)
periodically export and save pertinent WhatsApp chats
save screenshots of images, Instagram posts, WhatsApp chats, etc and paste them into an online photobook that you can later get printed (I use Shutterfly.)
create a series of Facebook posts like my friend Nadia (see below), who's trying to stay sane homeschooling her two boys

If you're already keeping a record of this pandemic, I'd love it if you shared it with me. And if you do, please let me know if I have your permission to use your picture or story in a future blog post. Provided I have the brain space to actually produce such a thing!

Oh joy! The daffodils are out and blooming like they always have!

I join my husband for at least one walk around our property every day, and it's been such

fun to check on the daffodils' progress.

I hope you are doing OK, staying sane, healthy, and keeping fear at bay. Please feel free to write back, sharing whatever you want. Thank God we can all stay connected over the Internet during these days of social isolation!

And also let me know, please, if you want me to send another newsletter in a week or so. I've been keeping a list of insights and would be happy to share, but I wouldn't want to clog your inbox more than it probably already is. I know mine is, but I also enjoy reading how others are doing.

Be well!

www.annettegendler.com