I’m sitting in the kitchen on a rainy Monday morning, listening to the Indigo Girls as I think of what to write. And then I hear “It feels so funny to be free” in that lovely harmony they have, coming out of my bluetooth speaker.
I’ve heard this lyric so many times, and yet today I hear it with new ears. You could say I’ve been free since last October, just before Halloween. That was the week that I was let go from a job that I’d worked at for all my life practically. 16 years. Just like that, I was jobless, but free. Free to do whatever it is I’m supposed to do with my life.
I’ve been looking for a job since then, without any success. It seems that for all my experience, I have nothing that shows I have all this experience. I don’t have a degree in database management or using Microsoft Teams. I don’t have certificates in querying Access or portfolios showing my writing, which was mostly internal. And I don’t even know if I want to do the things I had been doing. I only fell into that job because I needed to have a job, and it involved writing abstracts. But everything else I did just sort of fell into my lap or I was moved into a department I had never intended on being in. Work took over and I let it.
So now, I have a choice. Or, I did, before all this Covid-19 stuff started. I had actually found a job I was interested in before all this, but of course no one’s hiring now, or even in the office to do interviews. So I continue with my new normal. Which turns out to be everyone’s new normal these days.
Who knew that I would be a trend setter, huh?
I figure that this is the time I can now focus on me, and what I really want to do with my life. What makes me happy now is creating. I knit and create patterns. I’ve made more knitting patterns since I’ve been home, more so in all the years I’ve been knitting. I finally finished writing and editing my book, and it’s fate is now in the hands of publishers, who I have yet to hear from. I even started blogging my own recipes, in hopes that some day I might be the next Martha Stewart. I’m not putting my hopes too high on this one, but I do have a knack with food.
I write all this to give others hope. Life may have done to you what happened to me months ago. But don’t look at it like the whole world is collapsing. It might be a bit shaky for a while, but there is sunlight at the end of the tunnel. Some of you who don’t have jobs will hopefully have them when everything starts to return to what it was. And if you don’t, then see it as an opportunity to do something new with your life. Perhaps the Universe is giving you a nudge to make changes. I know I needed that nudge to realize that I wasn’t exactly as happy as I thought.
We’re all being asked to stay home, so stay home. Look at your life, and see what makes you happy. What things can you do to take control of your life, rather than letting others take the reins? Do you have hobbies that will let you make your own money, like crafting and selling online? Do you make music?
I have a feeling that after this pandemic clears out, people will look at the way they used to live and make better choices. But I don’t know that it will make too much of a difference in the way we used to live. People are people. They will go back to what they know. Is that the normal we need, or is there an even newer normal that will emerge?
I hope for the latter. Newer normal. An enhanced view of life, and how we live it. Making conscious choices to take time out of our lives for rest, for relaxation, but also for work that makes us happy. Reaching out to others, either through video chats or phone calls or emails. And visiting with friends and family. Sharing responsibly on social media, without all the crap that we just end up scrolling past.
Think about who you are and the message you want to put out into the world. And perhaps that can be your starting point, once we all are liberated back into the world.
That’s exactly what I’m doing now. I’m going to be blogging more each week, adding project notes about my knitting, new recipe creations for you all to try, stories about the old photos I’ve collected and my thoughts, about whatever is on my mind at the moment. All I have is time these days, in between helping Lucy with school work at home. So I have no excuse not to blog more.
I hope everyone reading this is safe and healthy, and taking this time to reconnect with themselves and their families. We’ll get through this as we always do.