Pandemic Diversions

Howdy friends,

How have you been for the last sixteen months? Yep. It is now June of 2021. We have crossed past the summer solstice and the days are getting shorter. Sigh. As life is getting back to the “new normal”, I wanted to take time to acknowledge and appreciate all that we may have experienced, learned, tried and embraced during the last year and a half defined by the pandemic. 

I started the lockdown with a desire to be productive. Time to clean out closets. Time to do more yoga. Time to read more books. Time to bond with my family. Remote learning-- no problem, I have time to help my kids with school. I can sadly report that my yoga mat has not received the action I had hoped and my closets are still full of things I do not need. My desire for productivity changed and evolved. Although our dog Carley went on many more walks than she did pre-pandemic, I was not the go-getter that I had hoped I would be. 

I did find one new activity to add to my life. I decided to learn how to make macrame. Yes, macrame, the popular craft of the seventies. I never learned as a kid. I never made macrame friendship bracelets at camp. In December of 2019, I was in Mexico celebrating Molly’s 50th birthday and I bought a cute macrame plant holder from a vendor on the beach. I decided that it was a craft I wanted to learn. So last March, I bought myself some cord and started to teach myself. In the last year, my love of macrame has blossomed. I have made and given away dozens of plant hangers and wall hangings. Soupster Marymar has also created some collaborations with her pottery and my macrame which she is selling at her MM Clay studio. I’m not saying that this is my path to a new career, but the knotting of cords has kept me happy and interested during the last sixteen months. Instead of sitting idly in the evenings, you can find me contentedly making spiral square knots. I suppose someday I could create an Etsy store and/or an instagram account, but for now I am happy gifting (and sometimes selling) macrame to friends who come by the house. Who would have thought that the pandemic would provide the impetus to learn a new diversion.

So, what have you been up to? What new hobbies are you enjoying? What have you experienced or embraced as a part of your ‘covid life’? Please share your pandemic diversions. 

(And stop by sometime and pick out a macrame planter for yourself.)

-p