Weights

My quest to stay fit through this pandemic takes many forms. I walk, up the hills and try to increase my distance slowly. At least once a week I manage a 6 km plus walk, other days more like 4 km. And twice a week I exercise with weights and other gym equipment. This means my warmup consists of transforming part of our living-room/dining-room/music space into my gym. I bring all the equipment in, move music stands and furniture, set up my computer so I can meet online with my trainer and then I'm set. I used to go to the gym twice a week so this is my way of continuing. 

At the gym I used to muse about the fact that so much of the equipment was colourful, making one try to believe one was playing with toys - until you picked them up. My display (6 lb - 12 lb weights) looks playful, but by the end of an hour I know they are actually instruments of torture (well -  not quite). Workout is followed by cool down - a reverse of setting everything up as the weights retreat to their spot in a cupboard along with the gym mat, foam roller, stability ball and elastics. Furniture gets moved back to their places and the music stands once more are ready for another kind of workout. 

A Flash of Red

The weather has become very hot - and I am not a hot weather lover. I choose the early morning for my walk for slightly cooler temperatures. There is something peaceful about early morning. Walkers distance from others, yet the occasional smile, nod of the head lets others know that while we distance physically, we are all in this together. At our slower pace of life I savour these little moments. There is time for noticing. I caught this flash of red like a flame among the cool greens. With no deadline to reach a destination, I stopped and enjoyed the way the red just popped out at me - a little visual feast.

Another red clad person caught my eyes and my ears. At both the beginning and the end of my walk, I passed him as he played his saxophone, indifferent to people around him. It was lovely to hear a live musician. While I have watched YouTube concerts and Facebook concerts, they don't live up to the live experience. In that other life I attended many concerts and this week, in particular, I am missing the Montreal Baroque Festival, where I would attend as many as 5 concerts in one day.  So I savour this moment, too. A little sense of normalcy in our very abnormal times.

The Long and the Short View

A dark cloud has been hanging over the world as the pandemic has spread its tentacles. Nothing is as it once was. We try to get used to this new normal of distancing, of staying safe. I try to walk every day. My trajectory gives me long views over the city, across the river to the mountains in the distance. 

As I take each day I can fill it with positives: classes on zoom, virtual connections with friends, playing music, reading... At the end of each day I jot down a few things I'm grateful for - and there is always something. Thinking short term I find many ways to enrich my life. It is the long view that is hard. Too many questions with no answers. So it's one day at a time ... and we will get past this. 

Pandemic Ponderings

I've been thinking for a while of getting back to this blog - trying to process so many changes to our world. The first couple of weeks after the pandemic was announced I was reeling. But now I am used to the walking and dodging people, preferring to take my long walks early in the day when fewer people are about. I head up the hill and can keep a good pace without having to take too many avoidance measures as happens later in the day, particularly on weekends. I am determined to stay in shape despite the fact that I am home most of the time, so I don't always stop for those photo ops that might have enticed me in the past. Yet it feels so wrong to avoid people.

Time at home forces one to re-evaluate life, to find ways to focus on positives and to find ways to make life meaningful despite, at times feeling closed in. And there has been much to think about  - not only the pandemic, but issues of racism, partisanship and the whole notion of listening - really listening to the points of view of others. I am not a TV watcher, but I have spent time watching documentaries online, exploring issues and perspectives. I try to be an optimist and hope that coming out of this eventually we may steer to a kinder more inclusive world. I see glimmers, but we can't leave it to others to do all the work to get there.