Today is Thursday, April 9, 2020. One month ago life seemed normal. The Allman Brothers 50th Year Tribute was happening at Madison Square Garden, tickets were $11 on StubHub and although everyone in New York City knew “Corona” (COVID-19) was here, no one was making life stop. We collectively kept going.
Going on the subways.
Going to work.
Going to see our friends & family.
Going to bars.
Going out to eat. Yes, going out to EAT!
Inviting strangers inside our homes to deliver Cannabis..
We knew there was a threat but it wasn’t real to us. It seemed like “fake news”. Something that would last a few days or a week but no big deal.
A few days later, NYC declared a “State Of Emergency”. Being that I was 13 years old when 9/11 happened and 24 years old when Sandy hit — New York City in a state of emergency is not a place I necessarily wanted to be.
Sometimes you can’t help it and you have to stay.
Sometimes your situation doesn’t allow for you to leave.
Some say that is what makes a real New Yorker, someone who can’t leave because this is their only home.
I found myself packing my belongings for a trip of unknown length. Being narcissistic in my thinking, I kept comparing my situation to those forced to flee the city of Pripyat, Ukraine during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. How vain to think my voluntarily leaving my things behind to “vacation” out the disaster-zone is anything like being forced to leave, told you could return in a couple of days only to find 30+ years later, you never went home + your belongs are now part of some sick museum to sell tickets to tourists exactly like me.
Days 1-22 of my “Escape from Brooklyn”/Quarantine were spent in Spring Lake, New Jersey, 5 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. Sea, sand, shells, tandem bike rides, gardens, organic local produce, sunshine, family, friends & love all filled the air. My room was beautiful but the space around me was not my own. I was a guest during a crisis. Forced to be respectful while the world around was falling to pieces. The realization every day in March that this was our new reality for an undetermined amount of time had me desperately in search of space and place to call my own.
To call my home.
2.5 hours from my apartment in Brooklyn sits a small log cabin in the woods. A home that has been in my family for 16 years now. A place I used to hate as a teenager. A place I saw as a barrier between me and my friends—my life—my popularity.
Why would I want to be stuck in a 1 bedroom cabin in the woods with 4 bunk beds built into the living room wall where me and my siblings would sleep + create memories we could only hope to recreate one day with families of our own?
Why would I ever be able to appreciate something like that as a 17 year old eager to depart on the adventure of College and freedom?
Oh, the teenage mind.
Flash 15 years later. I am 31 years old sitting in the same log cabin I used to hate. A place I would give anything in the world to keep close to my heart forever.
A beautiful home my parents worked so hard to purchase before their careers began to take off. A home they invested in. A home they offered to me as a place of freedom.
The same place I felt was holding me captive 15 years ago is now my place of freedom. Redemption is a real thing and I am living in it as we speak.
What should be isolation, is now my freedom.
What I once hated, I now love.
This Newsletter/Blog/whatever this written form of expression is will be a picture inside my mind. Somethings may connect more than others. Some content may be completely far fetched, irrelevant or like why would anyone ever publish that. The answer is, I would and I ultimately now will. Writings that have lived on in my journals and my iPhone Notes app will now live here. Not all of them but some will begin to surface here also. Past entries, realizations, thoughts, feelings. Anything I want to share here I will.
Sometimes I will share stories of things I like to cook (I am a great cook BTW).
Sometimes I will share stories about traveling— like how I was supposed to be in London, England right now (April 6-22, 2020)!!
Sometimes I will write about remote work + the job I have held the past 7+ years.
Sometimes I will write about my love life.
Sometimes I will write about hardships I observe that aren’t necessarily my own.
Sometimes I will write about nothing (Grammarly wants me to change “nothing” to “anything” in this sentence but to me, anything can also be nothing).
Day 23 and beyond—I am now in my family log cabin. Alone with my thoughts and the love of my life. Free to be me. Free to take my “Escape from Brooklyn”/Quarantine to the next chapter. From the Beach to the Woods. I sit with myself, my faith, and the amazing cup of tea in my hand. Thankful for my health, my life and the joy to live another day.
Fresh Organic Turmeric Root, chopped + Fresh Organic Ginger Root, chopped + Local Clover Honey + Boiled Fresh Mountain Spring Water
Enjoy!