Remembering to Love Where You Live

The coronavirus might have severely impacted travel, but that doesn't mean we can't re-learn to love where we call home.

When I started this blog a few months ago, my intent was to share the stories of my travels around the world. I started with a list of topics arranging them in the order I thought I would post, but as I wrote each blog, the theme for the next one seemed to come naturally given what was going on in my life at the time or more recently, what was going on in the world.

While I thought I'd write about my time in Morocco next as I just returned home a mere two weeks ago, it didn't feel right given all that was going on in the world. Our lives have changed dramatically in the last two weeks as the Coronavirus pandemic has set in. Our daily routines have been upended with endless cancelations and recommendations to stay home. Travel has been impacted dramatically with restrictions around the world. Here in the U.S., like many other countries, we've been advised not to leave the country unless we expect to be abroad indefinitely. While this saddens me to no end as I am always thinking about my next trip; the health and safety of those we love as well as ourselves is more important. I will forever be grateful that just two weeks ago I was exploring beautiful Marrakech, reuniting with friends from previous yoga retreats and meeting new yogis from around the world over the course of a fabulous and memorable week. In a way it’s made tolerating the last two weeks easier. But for now, I'm grounded, like the rest of the world. And I know the world will always be there when this calms down and we'll be able to explore, learn and experience once again. So, Soli and I will enjoy what we can from my doorstep. I'll admit, amidst all of this craziness, my desire to write wasn't there. I was not feeling creative and reflecting on trips past only made me sad not knowing when I'd be free to travel safely once again. But I knew in order to maintain some sense of normalcy, I had to get back into what had quickly become routine before my last trip, writing this blog and sharing my thoughts and stories. But, where to start? A few days ago, I put it out there for my Facebook friends to weigh in on what I should write about next. Did they want to read about the details of my recent trip to Morocco and get their minds off the current state of the world? Or did they want to read about that time I took a "vacation from the vacation" when I jetted off to an All-Inclusive resort in Mexico three weeks after returning from a whirlwind 12-day solo venture around Switzerland, Austria and Germany so they could envision relaxing in a beautiful warm place? Or did they want me to get back to all those questions they'd asked about solo travel a while back since that's been on the back burner for a while now? Or lastly, did they want to hear about the time I decided to play tourist in my own city to gain ideas of things to do while we are not advised to travel. The few responses I received "voted" for the last one, which I think in my head I was leaning towards from the beginning. So, I went to bed that night thinking, I'd write about the time about five years ago just before I turned 40 when I realized I had traveled to so many cities around the world and knew some foreign cities better than the one I'd lived near my entire life, Washington D.C. I remember thinking back then that you can travel the world, but how often have you taken advantage of what's in your own backyard?

But, yesterday while out on my now daily walk around my neighborhood, another realization came to me. While it would be nice to write about all the things, I've done to play tourist in my own city over the past several years, most of those things are closed or inaccessible at the moment. Sure, it'd be great to provide some ideas for my readers to think about when this all calms down and we start to begin to return to normal, but right now that is not our normal. Our normal is staying at home, going out only for the necessities, limiting social contact and practicing social distancing. As I walked, I thought about what that's meant to me, and realized it's not only about taking care of ourselves and the others around us to remain healthy, it's also a forced exercise in slowing down. Taking a moment to realize what you have around you. Taking a moment to just be. Like many others, I live in a fast-paced, often insanely crazy society where we go, go, go all the time. So, shifting gears to take a breath and slow down when lives depend on it is certainly an adjustment. And quite frankly, a needed one.

While I spent this past week working from home and am thankful that I have the ability to do that, it quickly became apparent that the four walls in my house, despite whatever floor I was on at the time could easily become suffocating. I needed a way to break up the monotony. I decided early in the week to take walks as close to every day as I could. I've always enjoyed being outside and fortunately in my town we're lucky to have 55 miles of paved trails around our community. For years I've walked the same 3.5 miles route from my house, looping around a lake and through neighborhoods of homes I could only dream of owning. I'm a creature of habit, so I thought that's what I'd set out to do. But as I remembered all those years ago that I loved exploring things I'd never done in my own town; I needed to mix it up. So, I set out to explore different trails from my house in hopes I’d discover something I hadn’t seen before.

Fortunately, the past few days Mother Nature blessed us with beautiful spring-like weather which meant I wasn't the only one out on the trails. For the most part those that I passed were relaxed and enjoying the fresh air just as I was trying to relieve stress in a very stressful world. But yesterday when I came to one point in the path, I found two people writing on the trail with sidewalk chalk. As I got closer and they moved on, I found someone had left a huge box of sidewalk chalk for anyone to write or draw on the pavement. What I found is pictured below, the creativity of my neighbors all making an effort to bring smiles to the faces of those that walked that path. It worked for me, I definitely had a smile on my face. Take a look:

What turned out as a walk on a trail I normally don't take to just get a breath of fresh air, a little bit of exercise and to break up the monotony of my time at home ended up as a new discovery, however small that brought a smile to my face amidst these otherwise stressful times. So, even though we're stuck at home, I encourage you to be creative, find something new to do whether it be an activity within your home or exploring a new place in your neighborhood (keeping in mind the whole social distancing recommendations, of course). Create new habits and routines. Change things up. Do things around your house that you've put off for months or years. Try a new fitness class from the comfort of your living room; there's tons of fitness instructors offering their classes online for free. If it doesn't go well, no one will know (my lack of coordination means you'll never find me in a Zumba class, just saying). If you’re on social media, there are tons of funny and heartwarming videos flying around Facebook, some that are giving me quite the ab workout from laughing so hard. Have a Zoom conference calls with friends or colleagues you normally see daily. Check in with those who live near you and also those that live far away. Reach out to those you always meant to send a message to but simply forgot because you "just didn't have the time." Now you do. Turn off the TV and enjoy the quiet; I've barely had mine on all week and still have a DVR full of stuff from while I was traveling to watch. Silence is wonderful. This can feel like a challenge, but as a good friend reminds me often, positive reframing is powerful. So, take that Coronavirus, we're on it and we will win.

"Life imposes things on you that you can't control, but you still have the choice of how you're going to live through this." - Celine Dion