The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has certainly clipped our wings.

Nevermore has it been evident that we are a people on the move, whether it’s going to work or just getting out running daily errands. We live in a mobile world and this adjustment to staying home has many of us in a state of bewilderment.

What is there to do?

There are many, of course, who are now working from their house and school children have begun to adapt to studying their lessons from home.

But let’s face it, neither professional nor student are working around the clock, so in those off times, what is there to do?

This question reminded me of my childhood days, as well as when my children were home from school.

The long-anticipated summer vacation finally arrives, and then hardly two days into it, the kids began saying, “I’m bored. What is there to do?”

And like I told them, and my mom told me, “find something to do.”

In talking to people and scrolling through Facebook, I see there are some who have found something to do and are taking advantage of this time at home to do those things they said they would do when they had more time.

Well, now we all have more time.

My dad is cleaning out the drawers at his home office, and I saw where my friend Jan Blackledge has been sorting through old photographs.

These are two really great ideas of what to do, so I thought I would make me a list of things I could do while social distancing.

• I could eradicate, at least for the time being, all the weeds in my flower beds.
• I could better organize my upstairs closet that is filled with dance costumes, old sheets, and a hoard of pillows and lamps.
• I could look through my kitchen cabinets and decide what I could let go of since I don’t bake nearly like I used to.
• I could write notes to people that I keep saying I need to write a note to.
• I could sit and read outside of my nightly ritual.
• I could hand wash my car.
• I could clean out the garage.
• Like my friend, I could go through my thousands of photographs and organize them.
• I could binge-watch television shows and movies I had missed out on or I could start that book I keep saying I’m going to write.

This time away from all the hustle and bustle could also serve as a period of thoughtful introspection.

Each day, like many, I am hoping and praying life as we know it will hurry up and get back to normal from this pandemic, but until it does, what are you going to do while at home?

 

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.