31 March 2020 - Setting up

Today I’m setting up. Exploring Zoom, the online platform that enables screen meetings with people from all over the globe. Scheduling a recurring meeting proves to be a bit of a challenge. Time will tell if I succeeded… Let’s see who will join me in the daily writing group, to participate in this blog…

My guess is that the lockdown will improve technical literacy for some people. Others will stop participating in the wider, now online world, and focus on their bubble in the present moment. Both seem good options, and preferable to the mad rush that was once called ‘normal’.

So far I rather like this rāhui, this pause. Plans including travel, house renovations, events and visits have been cancelled, yet rather than distraught I’m a bit stunned. Forced to take a breather, and assess my present. My overpowering emotion at the time is immense gratitude: I live in a spacious, bright house with fabulous views and a deck for every time of day and wind direction. The house sits on challenging section - at the end of week one I haven’t ventured into the garden yet. Other than harvesting the apples. Made apple sauce of apple bits - cutting the worms and brown bits out what remade I turned into the best apple sauce I’ve had in a long time. Boskop apples. An old German variety. The apples I could use whole I dried, a scrumptious snack when I realise that I should not eat that entire block of chocolate at once…

Over the next few days and weeks I hope to share blog posts from writers in a range of realities - in the meantime I invite you to explore The Spinoff, and its lockdown letters…