A Pictorial Look Back at One Year at Home: Surviving & Thriving in Quarantine
By Dontrey Britt-Hart
We’re at the one-year mark of having life change in ways we could never have imagined: schools, businesses, and borders closing; waving goodbye to hugs and handshakes; missing the sight of smiles; toilet paper and disinfectant becoming a hot commodity; transforming our homes into vacation destinations, places of learning, offices, health clubs and "the club." Most of us spent at least one night dancing at home with D-Nice.
I’ve told many who would listen that if a screenwriter captured all that 2020 brought our way, most would suggest ripping up the script and starting over. Pick a theme. Is it sci-fi, horror, drama or a political statement on a system that needs fixing? You simply would not accept that a global pandemic would overtake the world during a divisive election while our communities were literally being torn apart, but it happened. And somehow we’re still here.
It would take little effort for me to focus on the challenges, the loss, the toll on our collective mental health or the fear of days to come. And, be clear, those issues are real and deserving of attention. But today I choose to look back at not only what has happened, but how I am still here today – sitting at my kitchen island typing this post to all of you – healthy and whole thanks to the love of family and friends, my faith in God, a whole lot of creativity and a few good recipes.
My prayer is that next year at this time, we will have all had more hugs, seen more smiles and come a little closer.
Quarantine Life:
10. Giving thanks.
11. Weekly visits to Mario’s Italian Ice.
12. Weekends in Michigan.
13. Speaking truth.
14. Themed parties with our family pod.
15. New drivers.
16. Historic elections.
17. Summer flowers.
18. Virtual conferences.
Cooking, cooking and more cooking.
Virtual everything: graduations, birthdays and schooling, oh my!
Home movie theater concession stands.
Escaping from the world under blankets.
Masked up at all times.
Showing love to first responders with hand-crafted cards.
Was baking covered with cooking? Yes, we baked.
Gratitude (and more baking).
Drive-by celebrations.
The short of many lessons learned is the value of being still, being grateful and never taking life for granted.
