Winston Churchill says that we shouldn’t let a good crisis go to waste.

In that spirit, I am going to start noticing and documenting what I have learned and enjoyed during the past 8 weeks of social distancing and staying home.

Permission to pause.

Perhaps as a by-product of my upbringing, I often have the mentality of needing permission from a higher authority before I dare to do something counter to what everyone else is doing, so it’s nice when the authorities issue a blanket instruction like “Stay home and flatten the curve.”

I can do that.

Better health.

I’m definitely benefitting from more rest, less stress, no commuting, more time to exercise, eat well, and (finally) put in place healthy habits.

Government financial assistance in the form of JobKeeper payments.

So grateful to live in a country that gives its citizens a helping hand in tough times.

A spike in creativity.

More time to dream, to imagine the future, to read and write and play music, to learn how to be a child again.

And perhaps to question what is, and think of ways to make it better.

I don’t just want to go back to normal; I want to be part of creating and contributing to something better for all of us.

Being at peace inside my bubble.

This is probably the biggest benefit of all.

With just my family around me, I can tap away on my computer daily, connecting with people but not having to meet up.

I’m hoping they keep the restrictions going for a few more months.

Life is manageable when it’s reduced to the simplest activities, much like when the girls were very young and all I had to think about was them. Cooking, shopping for essentials, cleaning and decluttering years of accumulation, and pretending that I’m on a kind of neverending holiday.

I can do that.