A confinement in body …not in soul by Monique Lucy Weberink

Emma Justine Farnsworth ~ At Dusk, 1894

A confinement in body …not in soul.

What started 5 weeks ago as a horrible time for me due to the Coronavirus and being in confinement turned out to be a useful period I really needed without even knowing it. 

Of course the reason for this lockdown is awful and I feel really sad thinking about all the victims who lost their lives, in solitude even.   I feel scared about the economical consequences as well.

However personally, this period of solitude has given me the opportunity to step back and think about the meaning of my own life. Who am I really, what do I want and what is important to me?  

Unquestionably I love to eat in restaurants but now I cook wonderful meals and sit for hours at the table with my husband and son, having interesting conversations.  Really listening to each other.

I like to travel, but actually I was a bit tired of all the traveling lately. Now I sit on the sofa with masterpieces by Tolstoy, Dostojevsky and Proust and I travel to all these places I have never been with them as my guides. I am not just traveling geographically but as well in time. How wonderful this is! 

Now I have the time to play with my cats (and with my husband!) I do not forget to water all my plants, I sit on my balcony and I really enjoy the rays of sunshine. I look through photo albums and I relive my youth.

Actually I start to feel more relaxed and when the lockdown is over, I am not going to shop or dine outside, I will go to the beach with my husband and son, to see the sun fall into the sea.

Just the three of us. 

Las Palmas, April 21th 2020