And so comes another time when I can't make it home to Mama.
I would have certainly gone home this year. But, due to the rising infection rates of COVID-19, travel is ill-advised –– and so is most human interaction with folks of unknown carrier status. So, I'm alone.
It's weird to be spending Thanksgiving essentially locked away in my space without my family, or even the ability to go out for a nice cooked meal at a local restaurant. Rough times, for sure!
I am not complaining, though. I can count many pandemic blessings so far – chief among them being my family's and friends' health and my own.
I’m actually thankful that the pandemic — while it scares me to death every single day as I wonder if someone I love eventually will be afflicted — has had a few silver linings. I’ve been in a creative nirvana, for one! It’s been like a writer’s, artist’s, reader’s, educational and business retreat all rolled into one. I’ve challenged myself to get a few projects done and the needle has been moving. Were it not for the forced isolation of the pandemic, I don’t know that I would have had this momentum this year.
Here are realities that I'm thankful to count:
•I finished and just launched this website for my jewelry, art and as a campfire for creativity. I did it all on my own after long lamenting I needed a webmaster, photographer, graphic designer and others to help.
•I’ve worked on a young adult novel languishing in my computer.
•I’ve worked on a children’s book also languishing in my computer.
•I set a goal of 25 books to be read (or listened to) for the year and I am on schedule to meet that goal.
•I designed a 2021 jewelry history calendar featuring my jewelry as art. (Consider it as “Coming Soon!”)
•I’ve started teaching myself digital art on my iPad.
•I’ve been planning a second website featuring my writing services.
•I’m developing courses from my own knowledge base on several topics. (Consider these as "Coming Soon," as well!")
I’m swinging for the fences because if ever there were a time for me to “go hard or go home” in my life it’s ... now.
Thanks to the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the days around here at Jean Williams Studio are very solitary and lonesome but unusually productive. When I’m not battling intermittent blues because of the gloomy state of the country, the economy and other current aspects of American life, I am singing and dancing and talking myself back on track. Soon, I’m back in the saddle making, doing, planning, dreaming, wondering, praying, questioning, exploring ... creating.
I am thankful because I haven’t missed a meal or been evicted, despite being nontraditionally employed and struggling to build my little enterprise. Lots of our fellow Americans are suffering and in dire need, and that really hurts to know. I’ve got my own serious pandemic trials, but — very thankfully — I have such great and wonderful family and friends that I have not felt alone while ironically always alone. These things are what keep me going.
And forever grateful!
Jean, I am so proud of you, my sister! Keep creating, writing, planning…Yes!
Glad to see you are so creative in so many ways!
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