Pause

These last two months have been a different version of a time that I always imagined, life at a slower pace. For someone whose mind is never quiet and has trouble sitting still, to surrender to this experience of staying home, the calm, was unnerving at first, when you are so used to the din. 

All of us across the world were connected in this experience. We paused, rewired & created a routine to take our minds off the fact that the end to this confinement was not in sight. We definitely skilled up, the grass got greener, the daily clamour was replaced by birds, air got cleaner, you could see more than just the moon in the night sky. Dolphins returned & the Himalayas were visible from miles away. The economy suffered and so did a lot of humans. But isn’t it the way the world has worked always, where nothing is ideal at any given point of time.

While the earth rebooted itself, I experienced rich love, loss and reconnected with ones that mattered, shared hearty meals & conversations, made friends with plants & birds. Simple gestures such as hugging, shaking hands, interacting with strangers or even people we know turned into anxieties. Run was replaced with yoga, catching the moon rise with a rosé replaced the weekend soiree & virtual parties became a thing. I channelled my inner nigella and baked. I finished books after books, introduced myself to poetry, relived old memories, and discovered a new found love for indie music.  

While I had the privilege to slow down, invest in myself and appreciate the good things in life, my thoughts & prayers constantly went out to those who did not have this luxury and who put themselves at risk every single day. I cut through the negative noise in my head by anchoring my mind to ideas, humans and things that fuelled inspiration & positivity. This lockdown made me value and appreciate human connection & our community. As and when we emerge out of this new normal the first thing I would want to do is to reach out to my tribe with even warmer hugs, bigger smiles and lots of cake.

As I return to writing, work and hopefully travel I will use this platform for stories of people, places, things that inspire me and feed the spirit.