Pandemic Problems
February of 2020 was the month: Launching my new travel blog in order to tell stories and share pictures from my travels.
That Stately Life: Grand adventures through a simple lens. (Edit in 2022: changed that tagline)
While I prepared for the launch, our world prepared to shut down. Little did I know that within a month, my travel would be severely restricted for the next year or forever.
So, I sat on my idea. “I’m sure it’ll be better by the fall, right?” Ha! Wrong. This corona ish was here to stay.
As time pressed on, I felt boxed in by the borders around the world that continued to close for Americans. I had also gone back to teaching a few months later (another topic for another day) and was asked to limit travel for the sake of our district’s overall well-being.
In other news: Concerts postponed (see you later, Harry Styles. Waaah.), my Christmas in London canceled, several weddings got the skip, and no visiting family in Mississippi for Thanksgiving. You thought dating was hard before the pandemic? Psh. FaceTime double chin dates are a definite hell nah for me.
As heartbreaking as it was to put our lives on hold, the important part was to keep myself and others around me as safe as possible. So I’d do all of this again…I just wish we didn’t have to in the first place.
Needless to say, my travel blog idea needed a massive pivot.
I almost abandoned the idea of a blog altogether, but I missed writing. I blogged for almost 10 years before taking a break a few years ago. I thought the break would spur me on to finally write my first book. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. In fact, the routine of blogging and journaling I had going in my 30’s produced way more actual writing than I realized. If writing is a muscle, I must use it. Currently, that muscle needs physical therapy from the atrophy produced by my hiatus. Yikers.
So, here I am (finally!) with my blog launch. One year later. Two-One-TwoOne felt like a great day to say I’m back; a little rusty but here. I have always had much on my heart to share, so I’m hoping you’ll join me as I put to words what I am learning about myself and the world around me. So, it’s now a travel & lifestyle blog…and by travel, I mean re-living old trips until I can safely board a plane again and not be turned away at the UK border. And by lifestyle, I mean how a clutter bug extrovert has been learning how to be a semi-disciplined homebody without withering up inside. You know, typical Enneagram-4-meets-a-global-pandemic stuff.
This season for me has been about accountability. I routinely have grand plans and great schemes, but most of my dreams live their life spans out on paper. My idea machine paralysis is ever-reaching to most facets of my life.
Accountability has been the foothold I’ve needed to launch some of the desires of my heart. The fun part about getting a dream from plans to action is that you have permission to finally let it die. The freedom to try something and say ‘no thanks’ has been fueling me for the past year or so. After all, failing with information is still movement in the right direction.
I’ve spent so much energy on dreaming that it has been nice to knock a few off the list. For instance, after trying out some of my art as a business, I think of this clip of Men on Film from In Living Color:
Failing forward is a success to me. Now that space in my heart is free to dream a new dream or revamp an old one. Like a toxic relationship, we often stay where we are comfortable…no matter how detrimental the effects. But living without challenge is not the life I want for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I have days where I want to throw my iPhone in the toilet and move out to the country; simplify my interactions and go radio silent on social media. But deep down, I am built for community.
That is what I hope to create here on my blog and in my spaces. I long for others to feel connected to one another and have support for whatever it is they are facing. As a storyteller, I want to make people laugh or cry or think or not-think. With fierce accountability and vulnerability, I want to overcome the overwhelm of life and help others do the same. And for the love of all things holy, I want others to share their best memes with me.
Wanna come along?
