Journaling through Quarantine

An idea on which direction to go with The Quarantine Project finally came to me. It didn’t happen while walking yesterday—as I had hoped—but the light bulb turned on this morning as I sat down to write this. 

I didn’t take my camera walking with me because I was worried that it would slow me down. After several days of rain, I was eager to get out there and POWER walk. The camera is fairly heavy, and I would have had to wear it around my neck. Note to Self: find a backpack to wear on my walks; to carry water, phone, glasses, identification, and camera.

What’s ironic is that while the rain kept me indoors, I was able to read all of the posts by JLynn on WhileWalkingToday; another blogger who is literally walking her way into shape. All I could think about while reading her posts (besides being amazed by her perseverance and her humorous approach to it all) was how much I missed being out there… walking.

Anyway, since I didn’t have my camera—of course—I noticed EVERYTHING. My first thought whenever something caught my eye was always… “Man, I sure wish I had my camera!” My disappointment subsided when I thought about the fact that sometimes photos don’t express what you REALLY see. Many times in fact. So I thought I might write about what I saw instead.

Gratitude kept coming to mind. I was so grateful to be outside! Being “without” really changes us. When I broke both of my ankles some years back, all I could think about was how heavenly it would feel to walk again. Yesterday was like that. I kept looking up at the big blue sky, wanting to lift my hands and shout Hallelujah! 

I walked through an alley that I never even knew existed. And I’ve been in this community for… well… decades. We have equestrian neighborhoods here, and the alley runs behind the houses in one of those areas. I guess you could say I had an up-close and personal view of the back; horse stalls and all. And manure. Honestly… I was never so happy to smell horse poop. 

Upon entering the major thoroughfare, I was greeted by several walkers, runners, and cyclists… almost all of them wearing masks of some sort. 

One man who jogged by me looked something like this…

PHOTO NOT BY ME

I wasn’t wearing a mask so I felt a little awkward. I didn’t really plan to see humans (how odd is that?!) so it didn’t seem necessary. Much of it is still so surreal to me. It seemed like I had exited stage left and had erroneously landed smack dab in the middle of a Mad Max production. But, in spite of it all, everyone I encountered was full of energy and life, and they all seemed as grateful as I was… to be outside.

All in all, it was a beautiful day. I walked 2.77 miles (or 6,768 steps) in an hour. And I haven’t been wearing my step counter either. What I’m realizing is that with counting steps, reading up on food facts, and hopping on and off the scale… all of this can easily turn counter-productive. As they say—don’t think about what you are trying to quit! The key here is the same key that helped me stop drinking and smoking. Turn it over to God and think about something else; NEW things.

So, it seems as though everything is falling into place. I’m going to think less about food and fitness, and focus more on The Quarantine Project; a collection of stories and images from “walks around the neighborhood” during the social distancing restriction. When you think about it—some day—any experiences that we document right now will literally be a part of history. What an awesome opportunity!

That’s about all for now. If you’ve made it this far down… thank you so much for reading (hanging in there).

And thank you Rebekah and JLynn—for all of the inspiration.