My intervention!

So much time. I’m wondering how you’re all spending it. I’ve done a brief census of my friends and peers. Cooking, cleaning, homeschooling, writing, painting, gardening, stressing! It’s quite a spectrum. My friends with steady jobs are freaking out, which is fair. My artists friends […and myself] are just going with it. We’re used to this. Honestly, these last two months haven’t felt more or less secure to me than any other month. Then, there are the essential workers that are just being crushed under the weight of a panicked, thankless society.

For me, this was a long overdue intervention. I would have stayed on the travel/photography hamster wheel until I died. I knew the path I was on was unsustainable, but like a treadmill running too fast, there was a point I couldn’t get off. A family to provide for, and debt that would eat me alive if I stopped. I wish there was a less tragic way this interruption could have happened for me, but it doesn’t chance the fact that I needed it. Badly. So, here I am, with a couple months of isolation, and potentially, a few more weeks to go.

The personal disruption during this time has been unimaginable. Obviously, societies, industries and economies have come to a screeching halt, but I’m talking about my personal domain. Remember, when COVID-19 was a new thing. When it was first becoming a headline, I was visiting @roadscape, watching on the sidelines as Steemit was taken over in a term that defines “hostile”. I was shook. My internet home and the blockchain I invested so much of myself in to, began looking unfamiliar.

@caffetto, my beloved coffee shop. The land of misfit artists, punks, poets and addicts. A safe harbor of Minneapolis and the incubator for some of the most present and foundational Hive members in the Twin Cities, closed. Fortunately, it looks like @caffetto will survive this hiatus, thanks to the contributions and love of hundreds via GoFundMe. For months now, I haven’t stepped foot in my other home. I haven’t played a single game of MTG against @tarotbyfergus with real, physical cards.

The space I spent the least in was my home, and the irony is not lost on me. I knew my mental, emotional and creative health would depend on loving where I spent my time. @vermillionfox and I understood a project of finally turning a very place, forgettable office in to a full fledged recording/streaming studio. We all started planting seeds early, starting what will eventually become our summer garden. I just crossed a threshold of 10K words on a novel. I’m also working diligently on a big project for @eos.detroit.

That’s what I’ve been doing with this time that I’ve been afforded. Homeschooling with @guthrie, but a collective family commitment to quality time as well. We’re currently on season two of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I think I needed to write this blog tonight, so I could see, in black and white, how I’ve been utilizing this intervention. I pride myself as adaptable, and affirmations, like this, are one of the ways I ground myself in to new routines. How I keep myself accountable with my precious time.