Article and Photos by Larry H. Oskin
The Coronavirus pandemic has given many of us time to stay home and to reflect on the many positives in our lives. With our fast-paced lives, there is usually no extra time. Besides wearing gloves, masks and disinfecting everything in sight, we should now be ready to take advantage of our much-needed extra time and space. Here are a few ideas and reminders to help you enjoy your quarantine isolation.
Enjoy Each & Every Beautiful New Day! Start by getting out of bed each day by shouting, “Today will be fantastic!” Open the curtains, blinds and windows every morning. Look at and enjoy the quiet, bright and beautiful skies. If it rains, enjoy the much-needed wet calm, while your plants, trees, flowers and shrubs are loving it. Get outdoors a little each day on your porch, patio, lanai or driveway. Every day of the year has a national holiday for us to celebrate. To learn more, visit and sign up at: www.checkiday.com. Create and send extra special holiday greetings to your friends, co-workers and relatives.
Get Organized To Experience Less Craziness! Take advantage of less work or work from home with less insanity. Try to relax and chill. Visit online resources for creative relaxation and to learn a few new soothing meditation techniques. Enjoy quiet time with a good book. Get all of your annual bills, taxes and invoices organized into files and folders. Now is the perfect time to explore ways with online resources to make better investments and to save money on necessities like auto and home insurance. Now is a great time to start to plan a great new vacation for next year.
Try More Exercise & Good Sweat! This is a wonderful time to begin a new exercise routine. Whether you want to exercise within your home or venture outdoors with a facial mask, you can easily stay safe and socially distanced from others. This is a great time to double or triple your normal exercise routines while striving to be as fit and healthy as possible. Stroll, walk and jog on safely designated walking paths in your neighborhoods. Take a safe distance ride through the neighborhood on your bicycles.
Share More Creativity! If you have a hobby that can be done indoors, now is the time to take advantage of expanded opportunities. Get out your hidden cameras, art supplies, crafts, quilting, sewing, painting, gardening and all of your favorite hobby materials. Create a list of how you can accelerate your fun hobbies by taking them to the next level. Use the Internet to explore new ideas and opportunities. This is a great time to try starting a new hobby. Try book reading. Create holiday gifts and crafts for life after isolation ends. Get out your old musical instruments to learn new songs. Try to learn to play a new musical instrument. Try to teach your dog or pet some new tricks. You can even use Internet resources to learn how to dance. If you are an artist, join a new art league so you can get ready to share your fine art photography and artwork at a gallery when this pandemic is over.
Enjoy Fun Entertainment! Some fun and silliness is important. Be ready to be entertained beyond radio and TV. Keep your minds active. Explore trying a few new fun games on your smartphones, computers and with your online Internet resources. Try watching the more relaxing movies, rather than drama, suspense shows or the nightly news. Watch available live-streamed concerts. Try to experience something new like opera, classical music, ballet or a musical genre that you normally would not take advantage of. Read a few books about your favorite musicians, artists, composers and performers. Call radio stations that take dedications, so you can dedicate a favorite song to your children, parents, a sweetheart or any loved ones.
Take Time To Reflect! Start to create a journal or to write and illustrate your own book. Sort and label old photographs, videos and home movies. Write a detailed biographical story for your children and grandchildren, while sharing fun stories from your childhood memories.
Join & Create Virtual Activities! You can start or join a new group. There are plenty of new virtual choirs and bands opening up. Explore the plethora of new online training opportunities. Use YouTube to learn how to fix or do most anything. Churches and temples are now offering virtual prayer services that you can participate in. If you have not learned how to use Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter – now is the time to look for easy to follow online instructions. Create a virtual ‘Wine Down’ happy hour on the lockdown Fridays with your friends and families. Many art and science museums have started to offer 3D virtual tours, so you can now take your family for an outing – without ever leaving your home. Museums here in the Orlando area and across the globe have started new virtual awareness programs and tours. Get out the popcorn. Create a series of positive emails and Facebook messages using your photographs with inspirational sayings, mottos and famous quotations.
Share More Family Time! Enjoy your children and everyone in your home. Create interactive activities that will help everyone cope. Take out old games like Monopoly, Careers and Risk. Have your children read stories to their grandparents using Facetime, Zoom or Go To Meeting. If you have young children, create a make-believe camping trip with a homemade blanket and chair tent in your living room. Help teach your children how to cook cakes, cookies, muffins and fun foods. Invite your children to help clean, decorate and enjoy your home. Create a family time capsule. Help your children create sock puppets, while developing a new performance to record and or share online with their grandparents. Create a safe scavenger hunt in your home, for your children to enjoy. Wash and clean out your family cars together in the driveway. Explore foreign pen pals for your children to learn about other countries’ traditions and cultures. Send out fun email invitations, while creating family talent shows that can be recorded and shared online with friends and relatives. Visit: www.ZOOM.us and www.gotomeeting.com to sign up for FREE video conferencing.
Rest & Relaxation! Make your new Happy Hour into nap time. Try to take short naps, so you don’t ruin your evening sleep habits. It is wise to set an alarm for one hour.
Try Spring Cleaning! This really is a great time to clean out your closets, drawers and garages, so you can donate whatever you don’t need any more to the homeless, women’s shelters and the needy. There will be plenty of opportunities to clean drawers and spaces that are stockpiled with things that we have neglected for months and years. Get out big boxes and garbage bags, so these can be given away, donated or re-gifted after the isolation ends.
Spring Beautification! Now is the time to buy some extra plants and flowers or seeds, when you are already out at the supermarket, discount department stores and the home improvement centers. Plant colorful flowers indoors and outdoors. You may even want to try a small Victory Garden with a few vegetables or fruits. This is a great time to paint a few accent walls to refresh and brighten up your homes.
Create Less Pollution! Be careful and kind to our home, neighborhood and planet. It is now quite important to go outdoors with facial masks and gloves, when you are in grocery and drug stores as well as in any public spaces. It is also important that you dispose of these safety articles in the proper trash receptacles. Take the time to learn how to better preserve our valuable water, air, land and environment.
Enjoy Great Gas Prices & Less Traffic! When you go out for essential groceries and necessities, keep your car filled with gas now that the prices are down and dramatically cheaper. You can now afford the time and gas money to take an old fashioned ‘Sunday Drive’ out to local, state and Federal parks. Just stay in your cars to enjoy the scenery, take photos out of your car windows and to take some beautiful walks while exploring exciting new environments here in Central Florida.
Help & Empathy For Those Challenged! It is time to send positive thoughts, emails and Facebook posts. Pray for thanks that we are safe, while also praying for those who are challenged with the need to work to protect us as well as for those who are suffering with sickness or death. Volunteer your areas of expertise to help others with online learning, tutorials, chats and advice.
Be Thankful! Take the time to share a kind note and a warm surprise for your doctors, nurses, pharmacists, firemen, police, restaurant workers, mail carriers, groundskeepers, garbage collection workers, supermarket workers and anyone who is considered essential. They are all out their working to help us and to protect us.
Share Love! Take some of your valuable extra new time to personally call relatives and old friends each day, while sharing positive messages, love and warmth. Spend more time cuddling with your pets.
Share Yourself! Share homemade foods, crafts and old used books with your neighbors at a safe location. Make and share homemade masks with friends, family and hospital workers. Try to help your friends with their children, by assisting with some of the needed home-schooling activities.
Enjoy Home Cooking! Now is the perfect time to dust off your old cookbooks. As long as you already need to go out to buy milk, bread and toilet paper – you can take a few extra minutes to roam the cooking and baking aisles. You can create some very fancy 9-course meals or just some fun new desserts. Whether you drink beer, wine or not – try to explore a few new beverages during your isolation time.
Enjoy Take-Out Restaurant Foods! Most local restaurants are offering pick-up, take-out and home delivery services. Explore adding restaurant clubs and apps to your iPhones and computers. Many restaurants offer weekly specials with bonus freebies for your birthdays and anniversaries. Sign up!
Plan To Celebrate — Made In The USA! Be ready to support your local businesses, restaurants and resources when the isolation is over. Take local area vacations. Plan vacations for here in the USA! Plan to support and buy anything and everything made here in America.
Stay Home! Stay Safe! Stay Happy! Stay Healthy!
EDITORIAL NOTE: Larry Oskin is a writer and photographer for the South Lake Tablet. He is the owner of Marketing Solutions / Art Beautique, offering creative marketing, media relations and professional fine art photography services. He is a Board Member of the Clermont Downtown Partnership, the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra and the Clermont Historic Society. For more information, contact Oskin at 703-508-6800 or at LOskin@MktgSols.com.
