"I had no idea that when I invited Life to take over that it actually would and now I'm somewhere miles away from any place I know and Life keeps waving its arms and grinning like a crazy person saying This. Is. So. Great."
- Brian Andreas
As of 2 days ago, I’ve been hunkering down in this loft for 3 months. In the South of France. Away from friends. Away from family. At the height of this Covid-19 pandemic.
I agree with you. There are worst places to be as the French Riviera is beautiful. I am grateful. And in these past 3 months with a couple of seagulls visiting my balcony and mostly thoughts swirling, I realized I learned a lot. These are my learnings during the time of Covid-19.
1. That I Don't Need A Lot
Coming from someone who used to live a life with more than a hundred shoes in rainbow colors, this was my biggest learning.
When it comes to situations like these, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs comes to mind. And yes, it goes down to the basics. Physiological and safety needs.
I have a safe place to hunker down. Stocked up canned goods and frozen croissants. Vitamin C and aspirin are in my cabinet. Running water, electricity. And I was good.
I have been dragging a curling iron with me from place to place during this sabbatical – and am now thinking, what for. If you strip it all down to the idea of mere survival, we all don’t need that much.
The things that we think are important and we couldn’t live without, we’ll realize we actually can.
Someone has to update Maslow’s pyramid though and add Wi-Fi. Being stranded alone in a foreign place during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic is not the easiest. Twitter became my best friend. I would listen to Andrew Cuomo’s briefing although I was far from NYC because he calms me down. Reading Le Figaro in French wherein I can click a button and everything gets translated into English was a lifesaver. Zoom and WhatsApp connected me with loved ones. Obviously, including entertainment. And who would have thought I could read all Harry Potter books and watch all movies in 2 weeks.
2. That I Can Actually Cook
Do you know that girl who tried to follow a hack of putting eggs in the oven to boil them? Yes, that was me.
Baking is a different story – you just follow the recipe to a T - and you're good. Cooking is different. It’s like when you paint something. You’ll always have an idea of how it will be, but the finished product is never the same.
But with time on my hands and having the tastiest and cheap products that I can buy from the Farmer’s market, I started cooking. Seriously, I can never get over the fact that for 10 Euros I was able to get 4 avocados, 4 lemons, 2 apples, a medium pack of strawberries, a kilo of oranges, and a kilo of giant tomatoes. Yes, welcome to the Cote D'Azur.
In barely 3 months – I can prepare avocado toast in 10 different ways, mastered linguine aglio olio, broiled grapefruits for brunch, did my garlic aioli, cooked the creamiest tomato soup, did an apple cobbler and even made my very own croutons from an age-old baguette. That’s just naming a few.
Am I bragging? Well, totally.
3. That Discipline is Everything
Shakespeare during one of the plagues wherein he was quarantined was able to finish King Lear. In 3 months, I may not have been as prolific as him during this Covid-19 lockdown, but I was able to launch my travel and art blog plus worked on a product line with FineArtAmerica for my paintings. Even finalized an Instagram page for my art!
But in the crux of it – if you are alone, without any authority to follow up on you and no visible organization to report to – discipline plays a big part. I believe this is quite true for any freelancer, however, rings more true during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sleep patterns are messed up. I was joking with a friend about when was the last time she took the time to condition her hair. Eating habits are forgotten. The things that you used to do automatically, somehow get neglected when the veneer of being a part of a functioning day-to-day society is removed.
Pulling or pushing one’s self to start something or even getting out of bed is a struggle. When there are no rules, no accountability, and no concept of time - without discipline, nothing will move.
4. That One’s Perception is One’s Reality
The first time I heard about Covid-19 was in November while I was in San Diego. There was news about the black plague. That there were a couple of cases in San Francisco.
2 months after, I was laughing about it with a friend. We were cracking up on jokes about ordering Corona beers and calling Batman.
Eager to kitckstart my supposedly world trip - in 3rd week of February, I flew to France for another artist residency amidst the entirety of Asia starting to close down borders and friends from Malaysia and Indonesia telling me to hold off my visit to see them.
In the first week of March, although I can see in the news everything about what was happening in Italy, am thinking it was just hype. As always, the media is fanning the flames. It’s the latest hot topic you see.
That although in the span of barely 48 hours – I had to change my flight ticket from Marrakech to Madrid to Istanbul to finally cancel it as all borders closed down.
Until the night when I was having dinner with my fellow artists in the residency. A fellow artist's son, who specializes in virology, drove 12 hours to pick her up. And while he was explaining to us that what we are reading from the news is scaled down already, the country of France closed all essential business.
In a snap of a second, I went from “am-going-to-sanitize-but-really-this-is-just-a-hype” to “uh-oh-this-is-what-survival-of-the-fittest-actually-means”. To swing one’s point of view from a bystander to suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a proverbial arena as one of the players is terrifying. France was following in the footsteps of Italy in Covid-19 cases. I am now living the headlines.
This quaint, old French village that felt so welcoming became suddenly sinister. All I could think about was that sometime in the 15th century, a plague wiped out the entire village.
There are so many noises and so many channels of news and information that we can get our hands on. But at the end of the day, whatever we read, hear, consume, and finally perceive to be true – is what we tend to believe. What we believe becomes our reality.
5. That Life Has A Funny Way of Giving What You Asked For
15 years ago, before corporate, I was applying for an admin position in Shangri-la Dubai. I was asked if you can do anything with your life – how do you imagine it would be? I said live by the beach and paint.
Fast forward to 3 years ago, I was having dinner with a friend who just bought a little house in the south of France. I told her when I get the courage to quit corporate, I would like to live in France for at least 6 months. Get to know the language, learn to make a crepe, and drink French wine. And paint to my heart’s content.
Now, I am in France. Alone. In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It has been 4 months now. I am living in this beautiful loft that’s 2 minutes away from the sea. I can go to the market and buy produce using my meager French. I just had crepes earlier (that I made) and sauvignon blanc with it. With all my painting materials waiting for me to start creating.
Life really has a sense of humor.
The adage “be careful what you wish for” comes to mind. Honestly, I don’t think you should be careful about wishing. You just need to be a little bit more precise about what you are hoping to happen. Because if I would go back and remember what I was hoping for – they all came true. Minus Covid-19 though.
6. That Time Has No Meaning
Being lucky enough to rent an Airbnb by the beach with breathtaking views was a luxury that in all honesty not needed but I was truly grateful for it.
It's all over the news that some people were protesting because they don’t want to stay inside anymore. I’m the opposite somehow. (I do admit that I got completely comfortable in the Airbnb I was hunkering in. It has views of the mountains on one side and the sea on the other side. Yes, it was heavenly.)
Going outside was making me anxious.
So, days became weeks. And weeks turned into months. Suddenly I realized, it has been 3 months of me hunkering down. And in those 3 months, I went out only 6 times for essentials.
It is now that I understood, time exists only by the time we chose to measure it. If you are not doing anything special, it is just one continuous ride. Without the sun setting to show a day has passed, the entire three months would have been one single experience.
And I guess that’s why we create moments to remember. These are how we measure the days or a year in our lives.
7. That Love Knows No Distance
My sister in Vancouver urged me to find a safe place before the lockdown started over a series of messages - which I thankfully listened to. Watching my other sister in Oman bash the horridness of my latest hair scare (cut and color by moi) on Messenger.
My mum kept sending me countless videos to remind me of the power of prayer. My brother started sharing innumerable fake news about Covid-19.
Counting culinary achievements through WhatsApp with a girlfriend. Nieces and nephews leaving me voice messages telling me to stay safe because of Covid-19.
Be safe messages from people we shared lives with and impromptu Zoom video chats. Receiving calls from friends in Paris who promised to keep me alive with their magical thoughts.
A good friend from across the Atlantic sharing anything random to chat about for hours.They may be physically away from me and yet I have never felt closer to each and one of them.
The connection that binds you to those who matter will not be lessened by space.
Distance has no meaning. Love will always endure. Even in the time of Covid-19.
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