Always look on the bright side of a pandemic

While covid has put limitations on our lives and resulted in much misery, it also comes with some upsides. At least in the eyes of the optimist.

^{In Scandinavia there's a saying that Christmas lasts until Easter. For me, it at least lasted till February this year. Here with my mother and younger brother during the holiday that I felt ended just yesterday.}

It's been a while since my last Hive post. And although I've stayed up to date on discussions taking place about new Hive development and where the market is going, it's safe to say that I've been mostly missing.

There's a reason for this, namely that I've had the time and luxury to have the longest "Christmas holiday" ever. All thanks to covid.

With remote work being not only more acceptable and well-integrated into work life, but even mandatory at times, the opportunity was there to spend more time at home than I otherwise would have this season. For me, who now lives in a different part of the country than my relatives and used to live in a different country altogether while I was in Paris, this has been a real luxury.

So while this could be seen as the most belated Christmas post ever, I felt an even stronger urge to share some positive perspective on the opportunities that inconvenient circumstances may still bring along with them.

For instance, what on earth could beat starting your day like this?

^{The morning view I've grown used to the past month and a half. One way looking out the window, the other into the eyes of the family dog (Shiva).}

Usually, my Christmas holidays would be rather packed. Leaving work to catch a plane on December 22. Being with the family on Christmas eve and day, then joining friends to party on the 26th. Follow that up with a midweek of catching up with friends who I don't see as often since leaving my home town, before getting trashed on new year's eve and hopefully catching my plane again on the 3rd of January. Back in the office on the first Monday.

Instead, with Covid discouraging people to meet for large gatherings, this year's Christmas went to our family's winter cabin. Just the 4 of us (+dog). And while it was unfortunate not being able to see many of my friends in Stavanger, this turned out to be just the type of holiday I needed.

^{The inside of our cabin after all the Christmas decorations had come up.}

^{You know it's a starry night outside when you can get this good images with your phone!}

It's easy to forget just how healthy it is to sometimes disconnect from the often meaningless stress one encounters in daily life. And while holidays packed with events can be good fun, it's often the very opposite of that. Being "forced" to have a more quiet, relaxing, and calm holiday was thus more of a blessing than a curse.

IMG_20201224_133532 2.jpg

^{Admittedly, we might have just been lucky to have a place like this with such a tremendous view and the sense of freedom that comes with it. Many will have been stuck in the same small apartment with a view into their neighbor's block all season.}

But as if such a holiday wasn't enough, I figured I might as well stay for an additional couple of weeks. Why not? All my colleagues were working from home anyways, and I brought my work laptop with me and have just as good WiFi at the cabin as anywhere else.

So I stayed. And I skied. A lot.

^{Myself a couple of kilometres from our cabin where most people from our area go cross-country skiing}

It seems almost surreal to me to ever go back to a time where one does not do physical exercise of some sort in the middle of a workday. Why would you ever want to sit on your ass inside continuously from 9 to 5 when you can instead go out for an hour in the middle of the day, while the sun is still up, and ski?!

^{Physical activity is one thing, but having nature like this around to clear your mind is even better!}

Time off like this is usually the best time for me to regain good mental clarity, do some deep thinking, analyze problems, and structure solutions. It also serves well to sharpen my focus on what I want to do and prioritize for the next few months. And I know I would not have been doing it this fully without covid making me do it.

So while I began this post by saying it's been a while since my last post, I'll finish it by saying that I look very much forward to trying to add some new pieces to the Hive puzzle that I believe can help us make more out of this new bull season that we're finally in. There's so much more that we can do, and we all know it.

Fredrik