Blue sky soars into infinity.
The river flows into a distant sea.
Spring buds drip from the poplar trees.
I breathe and am restored by nature.
As the world prepares for its emergence from isolation under Covid, I too am preparing for what the ‘new normal’ will be post what some have dubbed, The Great Pause.
Years ago, when I could run and was training for the marathon, a weekly ‘pause’ from training was as essential as getting the miles in. On the pause day my exercise would consist of taking the dog for a walk and baking healthy treats for my family.
Immersed in Covid style isolation, which has felt like a marathon of the ‘getting to know yourself’ kind, other than twice daily walks to the park with the dog where I seldom break a sweat, the pause has consisted of little exercise and too many unhealthy treats for body, mind and soul.
I have been considering rebranding, The Pause, to the Great Investigation – the object – to determine the correlation between over-indulgence of Netflix and decreasing brain mass. Put simply: How many hours of Netflix does it take to become a vegetable? At least, with such a noble purpose as the cause of my binging, I’ll have a good excuse for the hours piling up on the couch and the lack of progress on my To Do List.
Then again, it does bring up another great question to explore – What is the relationship between hours of Netflix watched and expanding waistbands? Can you solve the equation – [X {hours Netflix} + Y {unhealthy treats} / Z {size of beginning wasitband} / 60 = Total expansion of waistband/minute watched]?
Covid still lurks like an unwelcome visitor who will not leave, but, life must go on. The world is emerging from its forced hibernation.
One thing I’m pretty sure of in all the ‘let’s get back to normal’ hoopla – hairdressers will be busy, and so will fashion retailers. I mean seriously. Given average anticipated weight gains of 5 – 10 lbs per person, who has any clothes left that fit?
Then again, we could perhaps organize “The Great Clothing Swap” – whereby everyone moves their pre-Covid sized clothing to the person who was one size smaller than them, pre-Covid…
Amd then I wonder. If there are 7.8 billion people (give or take a few) on this planet, and the majority of us have added on 5 – 10 pounds, how much more can Mother Earth take?
We are heavy beings on this planet earth. Our physical mass combined with the mass of structures we create, destroy and dispose of, adds up to a whole lot for Mother Earth to bare.
Maybe it’s time we all decided to not only lighten up but lessen up our impact too.
Maybe, Covid’s big message is to stop treating Mother Earth as our playground and start treating her as our valued, and vital partner in life here on Earth. Maybe it’s time we begin to put our efforts into creating life that is sustainable, nurturing and supportive of all sentient and non-sentient beings on this planet.
Because seriously, we breathe in nature’s beautiful life-giving air every moment of our days and in return, nature restores us. If all 7.8 billion of us became more conscious of how and what we breathe and put out into the world, we’d be making a whole world of difference.
Now that’s the best reason I’ve ever come upon for losing the extra pounds. I’m not only doing it for me, I’m doing it for the planet – Mother Earth needs me to lighten up and lessen up my load on the delicate balance of nature.
Namaste.
Dare Boldly 
Myself, I think we’re going to find we’re nowhere near ready to come out of it yet — for the very reasons indicated by you at the start of your post. Brace for further impacts, say I…
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I fear you may be right Ana. It is definitely scary – particularly when I look at what is happening in the US. Sending you lots of love my friend. ❤
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Gratefully received!
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Hate to say it, but we have been more mindful in our grocery shopping, cooking and eating, and have lost 10 lbs. That’s a big surprise … and a great opportunity to shop for a smaller size 😉
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Wow! that’s awesome Val. My husband has put on about 5 lbs – which he needed, where as I seem to be remaining steady at my place of needing to lose those extras! 🙂 Hugs
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Oh boy, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands. That formula for expanding waistbands in relation hours of Netflix consumption, would take Einstein eons to figure that one out. I figure we are allowed one day/week of being “unsettled”, do nothing, reflect, chill. However, anymore than that, and the battle of the expanding waistband will become a war. The winners – retail clothing establishments. And by the daily traffic of package arrivals in this ‘hood, I think online retails is already cashing in. As I reach for a handful of Virginia peanuts for an afternoon snack! 😉
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Tee hee! Me and Einstein. We’re like… foreigners! 🙂
As to the packages, I read an article that online shopping is up 60%.
I have mostly resisted — I kind of like not thinking about what I’m wearing and just throwing on whatever I had on yesterday until I figure out it needs washing. 🙂 Of course… my undies are clean everyday mom. 🙂
Happy snacking! 🙂
Oh my. There are a whole lot of smiley faces in this response. LOL a clear sign that covid desperation is settling in. Just kidding. I was very productive yesterday btw. Actually got 3 paintings hung! 🙂
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We need to go slowly as we move forward, life here for me hasn’t changed much
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I agree Joanne. Slowly forward is a good pace! ❤
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I started before the pandemic, March 1 to be exact, with a serious attempt to get the weight under control. It was a)the intense ski trip that my excess weight made more challenging, b)the diagnosis of the early arthritis in my right knee and c)how icky I felt. The stay at home time has been great and I am down 13 pounds at this point with 13 to go. I’ve also been spending 20 to 60 mins a day on the bike trainer and we started a weight training program. The challenge will be to maintain all these aspects in June when I go back to work and a more active social calendar.
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I so admire your discipline Bernie. Those are fabulous results. I am a stress eater so figure I’ve done well not to put on weight during this season of Covid isolation. I was doing online training with my trainer but have injured my left shoulder making it impossible to weight bare anything – which is hard in online training without machines. But, I am persevering. we’ve just ordered a Bowflex which a friend who also has arthritis in his feet highly recommended. I’ll let you know how it goes!
and wow — back to work in June — is it June already almost? Oh my.
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Haha — we shall see how mu h discipline there is once work starts. And I too am a stress eater so it’s been a struggle with the internal (my small world) and external situations
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So much to think about, Louise. You’ve put it so well, too–and a math equation to boot. Powerful message for us all. the clothing sway idea made me smile as we’re all 5 lbs heavier post covid hibernation. It’s weird but I haven’t been watching a whole lot of Netflix
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