1. Reminding the people I care about how much I value them. So far several have responded by telling me how much they needed to hear it.
2. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do fancy braids in my hair. So I’ve committed to doing a French braid every day of the quarantine. I’m getting better already!
3. Getting creative in the kitchen. Also diversifying my booze palate.
4. Very frequent lovemaking. Great for both health and of course my wife is, well…
5. I started doing yoga. I only did it twice but it’s already helping ease the anxiety coming from being locked home for three weeks.
6. Reading all the books I’ve meant to read but never had a chance.
7. Picked up Duolingo and started to learn another language.
8. I’ve been hitting the treadmill like crazy. I think I’m going to do a half marathon late this year.
9. Deep cleaned my whole apartment. It’s so clean, proud of myself.
10. I’m re-teaching myself photography. I used to shoot 15+ years ago, but fell out of it. Taking a masterclass on Udemy and practicing as much as I can with the time I’ve got.
11. Finally writing the movie I’ve always wanted to. I’m more than 60 pages in – it’s just flowing off my fingertips! Pure magic.
12. I started gardening and I’m really enjoying it. So far I’ve dug up 3 old rotten trees, trimmed the overgrown evergreens and now the garden looks twice the size. Tomorrow is to further trim the bases of the trees to give my pupper more space to roam.
13. Learning to play the banjo. It’s like learning to play the guitar but nowhere near as many people play banjo.
14. I take branches off the tree in my yard and make things. Green wood working. I made two mallets, carved a spoon, made coat hooks, and today I am building a “three log bench.”
15. Embroidery. Getting good at doing different styles of stitches and knots.
16. I’m doing a lot of self-reflection and self-acceptance. I’ve begun to define my goals for the future and my own boundaries.
17. I’m learning how to draw! Hands are hard.
18. I’m painting again and I got one of those “diamond paintings” which has been frustratingly time consuming but maybe that’s what I need right now.
19. I’m going to try origami.
20. I’m crocheting a blanket! I’m getting better at it with every granny square I make.
21. Sticking to my face cleansing routine every morning and night.
22. I’ve been learning to sew. Specifically, I’ve been learning to sew face masks.
23. I set a goal to go to bed earlier, which has been pretty hard to do. Making bits of progress every day though!
24. I bought the equipment to learn to DJ, and am watching youtube tutorials and practicing a couple hours a day. After being a huge fan of house music for years, I’d wanted to learn. Unfortunately as a PhD student, I worked 60-80 hours a week and didn’t have time.
25. Watching a lot of “classic” movies.
26. I ride my bike more while I have the chance. I have zero contact within 6 ft for the rides and it’s been fun.
27. Drinking more water instead of pop!
28. Honestly, I’m getting sober. Only 3 days right now… but for me 3 days clean and sober is a huge step.
29. Walking my dog for an hour+ each day.
30. Homeschooling my kids, makes me feel pretty good about myself.
31. Educational courses when not playing video games keeps me feeling useful and I might stand a chance of getting a job when all this is over.
32. I just started doing 100 squats a day yesterday. Let’s see if I can keep it up for 2 weeks.
33. Nothing. I’m taking this opportunity to not feel like I have to be constantly improving – my grades, appearance, brain, whatever. I’m doing the bare minimum at home because I spend most of my life stressing about how I can better myself. 
Stillness is how we feel what cannot be touched.
There’s little space for unloving words these days. Hearts are shattering while others soar off to new places. But hearts are also swelling with perspectives being dusted off, pulled off the shelves with swift movement to reveal and share inner wisdom with one another.
Humanity leans in and prayer becomes universal in too many ways to manuscript it all. It can only be felt. A vibration. A knowing. A steady echo that becomes louder the more we twist open the jar. The more it fizzles to the surface.
A clarity clashing with reality, and yet we ask ourselves, What is real anymore? We scrape up the remains of lust and toss it for pure heart. Love. Whatever it is that love means now.
We bridge gaps between fantasy and numbness, worlds where we can just live in our technology and not have to look up. But now we’ve been jolted out of our matrixes as we’re forced into real bubbles, cutting us off from what we were willingly choosing to before. When it’s no longer chosen and becomes mandated, it’s hard to distract ourselves from what our bodies and our minds are feeling withdrawal from—each other.
That world is shattering and it’s our moment to look up, to reach out and to feel what we haven’t tried to in too many years. It’s our time to release what our souls have yearned for but were apart from for too long, as the irony of it all takes us deeper within.
We aren’t martyrs; we aren’t warriors. We are just experiencers. We are gently breaking the vase of confinement while the walls around us protect us, helping us feel safe while the streets we always walked become farther from our feet, while the air feels like a Spring day hidden behind an invisible fog. We take a moment to breathe and suddenly we feel more cut off than safe.
We are just breathing in what we’ve been taught and told. We are just doing what we’ve always done, what we now know cannot continue to be. We are breathing differently now.
We are becoming what we want to be. Who we need to become. How we want to live. Where we need to go. Why we have to go. We are letting it lead us.
And here I am, telling you what I can only hear from the depths beneath my armor, my walls tumbling down without choice. Because we all have to connect our bridges. We need to walk across them, hold out our hands, and reach. When the world is telling us holding hands is something we may not do with a stranger for a very long time, we have to keep reaching.
I ask you to know there’s other ways. Love will live. We will keep feeling. We will start knowing. More and more, we will make more with our strength and not with our fear. We will access what we never knew was inside us all along. And when we step back out into the world, though it won’t be the way it once was, we will look up. We will smile at each other, and we will at last hold each other again without fear but with more embrace than there was before.
The late and noble George Harrison reassures me that “all things must pass” now. And I am falling in love with what I cannot touch. What I can only feel. The stillness in song and candlelight and the heartbeat of it all.
Can you feel it right now, as this prose ends with the notion of the impending silence and the stillness seeping into your consciousness? Breathe it in; let it become you. I bet you will know it. I know you will feel it.
Tell me, what does it feel like?
Few of us will admit it, but sometimes, we feel like giving up in life. The only reason that most of us don’t admit it is because society teaches us that giving up is for the weak. However, circumstances come into our lives that cause us to question our ability to overcome them.
We question if we will ever be able to get over depression, suicidal thoughts, loneliness, and heartbreak. We wonder if we will overcome the insecurities that plague us daily.
During our present struggles, time seems to slow, and each day that our situations don’t improve, we wonder if all there is to life is pain, heartache, and dissatisfaction.
But, there’s always a side to life that we haven’t seen yet, no matter how bleak our present moment looks.
On the other side of depression are days where we will breathe again, smile again, and see that life is worth living. We just need to get through what’s in front of us, even though it may be uncomfortable.
I know it hurts and you feel like you are drowning. I know you feel like it’s unfair and you have days where you want to scream, “Why me?” from the rooftops. I know you feel like no one but you knows what it feels like to constantly be in internal pain that you can’t turn off.
But you will make it if you hold on and go through the process you are in now. It just takes giving yourself a chance to believe that things will get better.
On the other side of being single, you’ll find your worth and one day meet someone who thinks you are amazing. It might sound cliche and you might feel lonely and like no one understands how it feels to have their heart broken repeatedly, but God always has a plan and intention for what He does.
He wants you to be with someone who loves you unconditionally, and you will find this on the other side of this season.
On the other side of your insecurities is victory. You might have spent half of your life putting yourself down and feeling like you don’t have a purpose. But sometimes, God uses our experiences to lead us closer to Him so we can find out who He created us to be. Sometimes we have to see ourselves at the bottom to recognize the higher heights that we want to reach for ourselves.
Where you are now is not where you were yesterday, a year ago, or even months ago. We are always growing and changing, even if it’s minor. You being alive right now and choosing to hope for something better, to dream for something better, means that what you see now can’t be all there is. It just takes motivating yourself to get there.
On the other side of what you are going through is a story to tell and look back on. You’ll be thankful that you stuck it out even on days where the weight of the world was on your shoulders. Don’t give up before you make it there.
Here’s a story about what’s on the other side.
You made it this far because you are strong. You’ve been through hell and back. You’ve dealt with toxic situations, toxic humans, toxic thoughts. You’ve even warred with the demons deep within yourself. You’ve faced so many challenges throughout your years, but you’re still standing. You might not feel like the same innocent person you used to be in the beginning, but change is inevitable. Change is what brought you here today.
You made it this far because you are diligent. You work your ass off on a daily basis. You put effort into each and every task you take on. And you don’t always get credit for that. Some people underestimate your hard work. They don’t think you’re productive enough. They don’t understand that sometimes, even the simplest activities can feel like a chore for you. They have no idea how much energy every single day requires, how impressive it is that you’ve come this far and are ready to go even further.
You made it this far because you are independent. You know how to take care of yourself. You know how to survive. You learned pretty early on that the one person you can always rely on is yourself. You don’t expect anyone else to baby you. You don’t need them to walk you through this world. Of course, your family and friends are beyond important to you. You cannot imagine your world without them and you’ve been opening up to them as much as possible lately because you know that’s the healthiest thing to do — but at the same time, you’ve gotten through a lot of your worst moments on your own. You are confident that, if required, you would be able to do that again.
You made it this far because you are adaptable. As much as change bothers you, you’ve dealt with it plenty of times throughout your life. You’ve gotten through heartbreaks, even when you thought the relationship would last forever. You’ve walked away from toxic people, even though you thought they would always be considered a friend. You’ve changed homes, changed jobs, changed paths. You’ve pivoted in order to create the best possible life for yourself. It hasn’t always been easy, but you’ve said goodbye time and time again, and you survived.
You made it this far because you have a pure heart. You want the best for your friends, your family, and yourself. You even want the best for people who have done you wrong. You try your hardest to see the good in people. More importantly, you try to be a good person. You’re always striving to improve yourself. You’re always putting effort into becoming the best possible version of yourself.
You made it this far because you are an optimist. Even though there are times when you feel like everything is pointless, when you doubt yourself, when you wonder whether you’re ever going to get where you are headed, you are hopeful at heart. Deep down, you believe things are going to improve. You believe everything is going to be okay. You believe you are going to make something of yourself. You believe you matter.
Pupils at a city school have been praised by Ofsted inspectors for their positive attitude and excellent behaviour in the community. Leade...
