2020 changed a lot of things for me as I'm sure it did for so many others. I realized how many un-essential things I filled my time with. I realized what was important to me and what I truly needed to do. I was in a different place than so many of my friends. Not having children I did not need to deal with virtual/hybrid/traditional school decisions. Having a job that I could do from home, I didn't have to worry about how I was going to pay my bills. But this also meant that I didn't have any more time during the week than I had pre-lockdown. So I made one loaf of bread in all of 2020 and it wasn't sourdough. I didn't re-organize my home and pare it down, Kondo-style. I didn't binge watch Tiger King (I wouldn't have done that even if I had all the time in the world).
I still worked on my scrapbooks and knit and threw in an occasional other craft, but since stores were closed, I couldn't go to knit night, I couldn't go to the craft store, I couldn't pop out to the store when I needed that forgotten ingredient, I couldn't go see a movie.
I did sew masks. I made cards for my family. I went camping. I went to the beach. And I read. I was in three book clubs last year and I'm up to five now. My local book club met via zoom until we could meet outside with masks. I have a FaceTime book club with my niece and nephews. I joined a book club that only meets over Zoom. I joined a book club that discusses the selection over Instagram. And I joined a book club that discusses via real paper letters.
Why so many book clubs? My local book club was essential to have some scheduled conversation with friends that wasn't about Covid-19. My Auntie M book club was a way to keep in touch my kiddos when I wasn't able to see them in person and to instill a love of reading in them. I joined the Zoom book club because I was interested in the theme of the club. Then I found out about a Jane Austen book club, six novels, two months each. I signed up immediately. Instagram brought me to the fifth book club which just happened to start with Sense and Sensibility. Of course, I needed to do that one too. Why not double-dip?
I wanted to read more and felt that a book club would give me the impetus to read. It worked. Reading a book chosen by others to discuss made me want to read a book I chose, too. If I read one for the club, then I should read one for me. I realized I had over 30 books I had purchased but hadn't read. So I gathered them all up and made two piles by my sofa. When I logged off work, I would pick one up. I finished five books the first two weeks of the new year.
So here I am at the end of March 2021 and my pile of books has gotten smaller in spite of the new books I added! I figured out my essentials are family, friends, food for my body and food for my mind. Crafting is good, too and of course, getting outside (to read a book).
