The Little Things
It’s Week Twenty since everything shut down here in Toronto. We’re still tiptoeing towards reopening…as a city, that is. Personally, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. As I’ve written before, I’m finding the pandemic hard to deal with, even if my personal situation is about as lucky as it’s possible to be. I mean, it’s a freaking PANDEMIC (with a side of dumpster fire). Hard not to be glued to the news; hard to find equanimity. My job has also been really intense for just about the same length of time, meaning I haven’t been getting a chance to rest or process the torrent of news. Still, there are things that are helping, a bit. Here are a few of them… Sunsets. My home office (where I both work and play) faces west, with a fairly unobstructed view. When the sky starts to change colour, I try to remember to stop what I’m doing and watch. We’ve had some gorgeous sunsets this summer…or maybe it’s just that I’m noticing them more. Duolingo. I started using this language-learning app back in November, to brush up on my university Norwegian…for a family trip we were going to take to Norway this summer. Obviously the trip didn’t happen, but I’m over 240 days in and still going. (I have missed a day here and there, but Duo lets you accumulate points that you can use if you skip a day, so my streak looks unbroken.) I’m really enjoying learning a language again, and…