7:35 am
Get up. Let the dogs out to relieve themselves. Feed dogs. Grab a glass of water. Shoo dog off bed. Make bed. Watch dog jump back up and mess up the blankets. Get dressed for the day. Watch the morning news. Vacuum and tidy up house.
Every. Single. Day.
For those of you not familiar with the movie Groundhog Day let me briefly explain. A man somehow ends up in a never-ending loop of repeating the same particular day over and over and over. He wakes at the same time, meets and speaks to the same people and experiences the same thing again and again. Slowly he starts to notice small things and makes changes to better himself.
Nowadays with the pandemic in full swing a lot of us are adjusting to a new kind of normal. We are entering into week 6 of the “stay at home” rules. We are stuck at home and only allowed to venture out once a day for a walk in the fresh air. We can only make a trip to get essentials once a week. Children are not in school. Spouses are working from home. Often times someone has been laid off work. Whatever your situation, we are all facing a similar kind of day. Trying to fill time and stay as busy as we can.
After two or three weeks of this, I started to run out of things to do. It is starting to feel a lot like…well…Groundhog day. Luckily I have found a few ways to cope. I’ve finally finished up all the odd jobs and projects that I’ve been putting off. I have participated in many a webinar and learned new things. My house is the cleanest it’s EVER been. I am still purging stuff like before, only now it’s more intense. Stuff that had sentimental value to me is now finding it’s way to the donation boxes.
Before long though I became stir-crazy. I’ve been seeing posts of people having strong feelings of anger and resentment. Boredom starts to creep in and let’s be honest, there is only so much Netflix one can binge on.
This is when a new and better routine starts to form. Routines can be soothing and comforting but we do need to shake things up now and again. Maybe now we find that we can become more mindful. Maybe you start noticing little things that you didn’t notice before and start taking joy in the smaller things in life. This is not a bad thing. Many of us will start trying something new that we never had the time to do before. Learning a new skill perhaps. Trying a new recipe. Discover a new language.
My new routine is really just an expansion of my original routine. Only now, every night before I go to bed I make a list of things that I can work on the following day. I have to write it down because in all honesty I don’t know what day it is half the time and I am forgetting a LOT of stuff. Like when I paid a bill or the last time I had a shower (True story).
I think the best we can do right now is slow down, take a step back and try to use the time to better ourselves. A lot of these things I have been working towards the past few years but I really feel like now I am really getting the hang of it. In fact one thing I had been struggling with was cutting back on TV time. Ironically enough, now when we all have nothing but time, I am watching only an hour, maybe two of TV a day. I have even floated the idea of getting rid of cable TV all together but the Beard refuses to even entertain the idea. Baby steps…
I truly hope you are finding ways to get through these crazy times, and that you are staying safe and healthy.
The Blind Thistle 
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