I’m sure I’m not alone – getting back to daily life after Covid-19 has settled down has proven to be a real challenge. I have found that being free all weekend has opened up opportunities that were unexpected that I don’t necessarily want to abandon. For me, I’ve spent a lot more time with my family but also started to learn bushcraft, some basic mechanic skills and other, ad hoc unplanned activities that I would never have had the chance to engage in previously. With weekends full of sport, band activities, running around after kids and trying to find time to get the house work sorted out, there wasn’t much time for anything else. With restrictions lifting, I find myself unwilling to get involved in all of that stuff again – partly from an enjoyment of the freedom, partly from inertia.
An object at rest is said to possess potential energy – does this hold true for humans though? I’ve been at rest for some months now and while it has occasionally been chafing, I’ve definitely enjoyed it too. I realised just how much travel I was doing for very small outcomes, how much effort I was expending for low return and now I’m feeling much less likely to engage in this expenditure again.
There are a few obvious points where I’ve been very slow – this blog has received zero attention is one of those points (sorry!). There has been a lack of creativity and motivation to sit and punch something out. I want to, but it’s like that energy could be used somewhere else. It’s also been the case that there wasn’t a lot of slack in the energy system to expend on creative events – too much has been used up on work, or dealing with the stress of the lockdown in Victoria and Covid-19. The other area I’ve neglected is piping and that’s a tougher prospect – my fingers are good, but the fitness needed to play the pipes comfortably has gone so I’ll need to rebuild that. In fact, general fitness has been poor.
No sport and gyms closed has meant that I’ve experienced a lull in pushing myself physically. I’ve had a couple of weekends of tennis now, a game or two of hockey and I feel hugely energised by it. 8 weeks ago I was having none of it, so what’s changed? Peer pressure partly 😉 which is not at all bad, and a lift in confidence about being able to get back amongst it with people. That fear of the virus has subsided and it’s taken a bit for me to recognise and admit this. Fear has been an underlying factor in everyone’s lives of late and it’s been interesting to see the way they’ve reacted – and how I’ve reacted too. It hasn’t always been ideal, and I know we are all doing our best. There have been many moments of genuine hope and selflessness – nurses and doctors going into harm’s way to treat Covid-19 sufferers has been a shining moment for me.
TL;DR – I’m getting back into it again – the sport, the writing and the thinking. Here we go!
Photo by Irina Iriser from Pexels
Angus' Blog 