It’s 2:32pm on a Saturday afternoon and I’m laying in a hammock in our yard. This sunshine is spectacular.
This morning, I woke up to plenty of sunshine, birds chirping, and a gentle breeze blowing through the house. Someone opened the windows before I woke up so we could have fresh air in the house.
After making myself some food, I ambled outside to feel the sun and fresh air and sit in the grass for a bit. Ten minutes later, I hopped up, swiftly made my way to my room to change out of the pajamas I had been wearing for the last three days, and stared at the pile of clothes next to my bed. I’m in the mood to wear a dress, but I can’t think of any dresses I have that are suitably loose that will keep me warm enough, since 70 is still kind of cold for a creature like me. Oh well. My hands came over a very loose fabric – a pair of student made pants I got during my study abroad in Florence two years ago – and a grey camisole I had discovered in the back of my closet during the last clean out. Pulling on this new outfit before I had even realized I was changing, a spark occurred that I should write a blog post about something. I wandered back outside to soak up every second of the rays of sunshine that would drip down through the branches of the tree I wanted to hang under.
Now outside, the hammock set up, and my laptop open, I have absolutely no idea what I wanted to write about.
Oh well.
Right now, we’re in the midst of a pandemic. That’s common knowledge to the people reading this for the next few weeks. COVID-19 sucks for people who need to work to make ends meet, it sucks for the people who have various preexisting heart and respiratory conditions, it sucks for small businesses, it sucks for local restaurants, it sucks for creatives who depend on commissions, it sucks for people who live in small areas with little to no personal room for comfort, it sucks for students, it sucks for extroverts, it sucks for long distance friends and couples, it sucks for anyone who was looking forward to traveling, it sucks for anyone who’s had a birthday that they can’t celebrate with their friends, it sucks, it sucks, it sucks.
Today, life is good, and that’s what I’d prefer to focus on. I’ve been keeping myself busy for the last month and a half of quarantine in Michigan. My room got cleaned a couple more times and I have more space to create things now. A handful of projects I haven’t touched since Christmas have been finished. I’ve watched tons of Youtube videos about studio lighting and a couple on altering thrifted clothes into something more fitted and more fashionable. I’ve made a skirt for my niece and started making a dress for my photography client closet. I’ve watched far too many seasons of various shows on Netflix.
Honestly, since quarantine started, I expected to spend significantly more time on social media, but I really haven’t. I’ve been better about responding to friends’s messages though, because I have the energy to respond. I’ve had the fortunate pleasure of booking a few more weddings for both this year and next. Yeah, I’m definitely ready to get out and start doing the things I’ve been wanting to do; I want quarantine to be over too.
I’m okay with not rushing things though. Now that I’ve started mellowing out from my slightly delayed teen angst, I’ve been sipping in breaths, counting seconds with the breezes that go by, and laying in my bed watching minutes escape on tiptoe as the sun sets.
It’s 3:08pm on a Saturday afternoon and I’m laying in a hammock in our yard. This sunshine is spectacular.
I wouldn’t change a thing.
Emily Crombez 