“One day you can enjoy a beautiful landscape, and the next day, you simply can’t even leave the house.” That’s more or less how I felt when I first experienced the discomfort of the pandemic. Being alone at home not only deprived me of that wonderful freedom to go from one place to another, but, as time went on, it also began to shut the door on my imagination and creativity. I got to the point where I thought this would be hard for me to bear and that it would even affect my daily habits, including my writing.
As the days went by, I wondered how much I could accomplish while confined within four walls and whether that would be enough to learn how to handle a situation that, overall, limited me in so many ways. Little by little, I had to find a way to combat loneliness and discouragement until I realized that it wasn’t about something bigger or new, but rather about being able to delve deeper into what I already knew how to do—even in a situation that might limit many things, but not my imagination. That’s exactly how one of my best ideas came about: the idea of writing a book—undoubtedly the most special achievement under those less-than-ideal conditions.
At that time, there was something limiting my freedom to go out and walk around, but it also served as the catalyst for improving my writing and content creation. What had seemed like a long and sad situation for me turned into a source I could also draw on when I wanted to write about a certain topic. Whereas before I could go out to a park or a more open space, now I only had my home and certain afternoons when, from my backyard, I could watch the birds or gaze at a small cluster of clouds in the sky.
Before that experience, I used to think that to fuel my inspiration I needed more space and interaction with nature, but after that my perspective changed, and now I understand that we can create our own greatest limitations and hold onto them in the wrong way in our minds. But not everything was a lesson regarding my love of writing; the time I spent at home in quarantine due to the pandemic led me to reflect on how important it is to be able to express ourselves to others, to make the most of the present, and not to let our expectations of tomorrow—which never turns out the way we imagined—hold us back.
Today, everything is back to normal, but that experience was a kind of life lesson in which many doors may have closed, but the window of my inspiration remained wide open. It’s amazing how the very things that can push us to our limits can also bring out a better version of who we already are, even leading us to discover talents and abilities that simply wouldn’t emerge under normal circumstances.
All the photos are mine.
Original text in Spanish, translated at DeepL.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
See you soon.