Ivory’s been praising what he calls our quarantine weather, attractively sunny and abnormally warm during the day, persistently trying to connect our experiences during the first confinement this year, when spring had not yet sprung, to this one, emotionally more desolate because of the winter ahead and dark days to come, and still no prospect of how or whether this will end or perhaps we should get accustomed to this stripped down life. He’s not wrong, with our ongoing extraordinary daily harvest of tasty raspberries as the sturdiest argument to prove his point, silently assisted by the still ripening tomatoes, also exceptional this time of year, but more than anything his truth is celebrated by his relentless enthusiasm in counting our many blessings.
Spending more time inside generally equals a change in our activities, slowly moving towards a quieter lifestyle, ideally catching up with some long delayed reading by our frivolous wood stove, but those are pre-puppy thoughts and achievements now under prolonged pressure. This beautiful weather is causing an increased wanderlust in Ivory, avidly discovering all kinds of new pathways for Mec and him to collectively explore once he’s more capable, so I’m basically paying for my future free time by babysitting a lot now, a more than fair trade. As a bonus, when Ivory returns I get to spend an hour or so in the cat cave, clearing my head, or filling it with reflections, preferably not related to doggies.
It’s frightening how attached I have become to this silent cosmography. My preferred closer look clearly demands higher standards than anticipated and even my eyes seem to have slowed down over the years, need time to perceive and process in peace. Yet, if anything, this confinement teaches me we need to move towards a sense of purpose based on the complex interactions between us humans and all other beings we share our surroundings with, whether it’s the still flowering Japanese Anemone, whose wintery whiteness suddenly charms me extensively, or the puppy teeth that are going to destroy it in frenzy if he catches me looking at it instead of at him.
It’s almost like walking a tightrope.
Get accustomed to this stripped down life
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