Just the Beginning: Day One

Hawaii, paradise, Garden of Eden, immune from the Corona Virus! NOT! What follows is a 14 day diary of the typical day and thoughts of a person living in Hawaii but under quarantine, isolation, social distancing...call it what you will. Anyway you define it it means changing the way you interact with others in order to protect yourself and those you meet and congregate with. It is a morphing experience, differing from day to day over the weeks. Enjoy the journey, grow with it, think the thoughts and create ones of your own!

Day One

Life in the light of the Corona Virus

Since receiving word that my bi-weekly gym work out has been cancelled for 15 days by order of the Governor and the Mayor, and after having four other social interaction events either cancel or go Zoom! I momentarily sank into the abyss! After all, these things were what was keeping me moving forward and growing in the current moment! Now all are either cancelled or made impersonal!

I decided to fall back on what has sustained me in other types of isolation. Read--social distancing! The fall back has been WALKING. It is flexible and readily available.

Walking includes the beach! Which luckily is just blocks away. What exactly is the walking experience like?

First of all, quiet! Houses along the way are either deserted…have people gone somewhere else? Or the houses are just quiet. People are hold up inside. Hunkered down. A few new ones have actually been built since I last walked here. Has that been three years already? Time has wings. Good to know!

Secondly, the way to the beach is just beautiful! Everything is green and clear. The air is so clear its like being in a snow globe without the snow. You feel encompassed, held, loved, protected.

But the ocean, it is soooo blue. Boats are out on the water. People with boats are enjoying the day, and probably even fishing to supplement dinner for themselves and neighbors. Must share the abundance as the restaurants are closed. Ohana is indulging in the fruit of the sea and the air and the blue and the green and the clear!

The beach. It used to be one of the few places where I could breathe. But that was on the mainland where pollution and pollen made me fuzzy and congested. Here, I am clear and joyful. It looks like the off season. Only a few people. Not seriously crowded. Moms walking and talking with teenage children…and that’s a good thing. Dad’s out walking too. Is that a first? Will it be an established pattern? Or just a vacation thing?

And then the waves. Are they eternal? Perpetual? An established pattern of their own. And the children are playing in them, over and over. Walk out, ride in, rinse, repeat.

Now its time to sit and enjoy the eternal repetition of energy and life. Here there is no end to the waves, and the children, and the moms and dads and the connections. But there are no appointments, no work, no meetings, and a certain lightness…as there is no immediate access to food! So without it, food cannot be company, and is therefore avoidable. And the news. Just the facts please. No spin. Taking this quiet time to re evaluate the news. Have you noticed that the spin keeps coming around, keeps coming back in different words. And sometimes refutes itself, sometimes in the same speech? No wonder people get confused and panic. The world spins out of control and they forget about the repetition of the waves and the children playing. They just see the leaders walking in circles, bumping into each other. Hard to lead when you are walking in circles!

Perhaps this is what addressing climate change has been doing? Walking in circles, no clear direction, no defined leader, people confused, panicking, going nowhere. Forgetting the essentials. What are the essentials?….food, water, air, healthy and interconnected-man to the environment and to its source. What is our part in keeping it all healthy? Will that then keep us healthy? So now while everything is shut down, we let the earth take a breath. We are keeping ourselves and our environment from suffocating, from just being too much, too fast!

And then people who are having trouble breathing from the virus can start to think about the sea creatures that are having trouble breathing from the pollution and oil and plastic? That would be karma. And not in a good way. Just a quiet wake up call from the universe.

So social distancing, isolation, is not really a shut down. Not a cause for depression but a call for reflection.

We can do it.

Thoughts on Day One.

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This is the first of a 14 entry series chronically the first 14 days of the Corona Virus quarantine on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The second day will be published tomorrow.

Tune in to read it at https://karenmac1999.wixsite.com/website-1, then click on Blog. or enter this address on favorites in your computer for easy access. Do you have comments or additions? Send them to Karenmac1999@hotmail.com. They are welcome.