Going with the flow is so much easier said than done, but when you can manage to float with the current instead of fighting upstream everything is easier, even if you feel like you are heading in the wrong direction. I think the beauty of that idea is that what we often understand to be the wrong direction is often quite the opposite and turns out to be the perfect route.
As each week passes, I have to answer the question from my fellow Adelaidians when they ask me how long I will be in town or when and where am I off to next? The answer could be short, ‘I have no idea’. However, it always turns into a bit of a ramble ending with a sympathetic nod or shrug from the quizzer.
If there was just a due date, an endpoint to the global lockdown you could work towards that. You would know you can just survive a specific amount of time or dive into a certain project. But it always seems like it might just be possible next month. This kind of limbo is like a constant disappointment cycle that has no regard for your mental stability. It just gives you a chance then stamps on it a few weeks later. It’s not life and death but it is my life at the moment.
Eventually, you learn to answer the quizzer with a shrug of your own. This shows you have graduated to the ‘go with the flow’ class of 2020. You don’t have to be satisfied with it but you are no longer under the impression that what you had planned has a moderate chance of actually being the outcome. It’s 2020, you don’t get to make plans, the plans make you.
It’s a big jolt to the system. One quarter you are the adventurer, going from one hike to the next in the Swiss Alps and then a few months later you are counting the cups of coffee you are finishing per day rather than the number of peaks. As all of those around me get on with their 9-5 jobs and associated household responsibilities and relationships, I float around the edges waiting for my time to jet off again. The dark, doomsday reality ever looms in the background that when you graduate from the ‘go with the flow’ class, you move onto the ‘enter the flow’ class and slot into the everyday life of what you once escaped. The doomsday reference was sarcasm but also fear…
But with all seriousness, it’s just another week of laying low. I ticked all of the boxes this week for exercise with 130 kilometers on the bike and my biggest running week since my double hip surgery in 2019 with 39 kilometers posted. A couple of rows and gym sessions added in there for good measure and I seem to be in alright shape, hoping I steer clear of any danger or injuries. I am tapping away on the blog, hoping everything is in order by the time I finally to escape Adelaide and our strict governing leaders and their Fort Knox lockdown.
I hope you all had a great week and my short weekly review gives you a small insight into my headspace. It’s mostly positive and having a laugh and slightly downbeat but that’s par for the course in 2020. The smile needs to dominate but we all have our moments. These are a few photos for the week from my phone camera roll, which are mostly for me shall I ever click back and return to re-live this wondrous week of lockdown winter fun!
