A solid month ago, I started a series of posts – in the spirit of my Five Thing Thursday series about Five things you can do while you’re Self-Isolating.
(Note: Self-isolating, social distancing, and washing your hands are all givens here. As is taking care of yourself and being an extra good human being.)
Quite unexpectedly, things exploded. I had this list of five things and I wanted to offer five recommendations, then I wanted to talk about them all.
It was then that I realized that to cram all that stuff into a single post would not only be asking too much from you, Reader, but it would also muddy the waters for the individual recommendations.
So I decided to break it up into parts and here – before your very eyes – I present Part Five of Five Things you can do while you’re Self-Isolating.
Thing #5: Try Something New!
Now this may or may not be something that you’ve got the bandwidth to do. That’s ok. This isn’t going to be a “Blargle, Grouse, Shakespeare, Blather, King Lear, Black Death” kind of post.
Don’t listen to that crap – it’s bullshit.
If, at the end of the day, all you can do is what you’ve been doing…good on ya. Survive. That’s what’s important.
If, however, you find yourself with a little extra spoons, then here – in no particular order – are some new things that you might consider trying your hand at:
1. Baking.
Now it might be that you already know how to do this, but I’ll bet that there’s something out there that you haven’t tried before. Why not try it now?
What’s that you say? You don’t know how to bake? Anybody can bake. Baking is little more than science for hungry people. Is it an art? Certainly. But it’s also a craft. A craft with rules. Follow those rules and you can’t go wrong. Get the rules down, and you’ll know when to bend them…
2. Start a Blog.
There really isn’t a bad time to start a blog. And the great thing is, you can talk about whatever the heck you want, for a long as you want to talk about it – AND – you’re not stuck with a single topic.
Like baking, there are a couple of “Rules” or maybe it’s better to call them guidelines, the one you would do well to pay the most attention it is consistency. Find a schedule that you can keep up with – and this may require some experimentation along with some adjustment after things return to “Normal” (whatever that looks like after all of this is over).
3. Start a Story.
Because, you know, this is primarily a writing blog. Got an idea? Go get it.
4. Start learning a new Instrument.
This one may be a bit tricky because I’m going to assume that you don’t have an instrument you don’t know how to play just hanging around in your house. But if you can get your hands on one, why not have a go at learning how to play.
5. Start learning a new Language.
From a logistics standpoint, this may be easier than the instrument. There are a bunch of online classes where you can start learning. There may be an upfront cost, there probably will be, but if you can get down and roll around in a language, maybe expose yourself to a new culture, or learn something beyond the broad strokes, it’ll be worth the price of admission.
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This wraps up not only my Five New Things to try to keep you warm and take you away while in the safety of your own home, but my series of Five Things you can do to keep yourself busy while you’re self-isolating.
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there. Be careful. We’ll get through this.
Kia Kaha (That’s Maori. It means “Stay Strong” Remember thing 5?)
I’ll see you on Thursday. Be Excellent to each other.
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