Hello to a brand new week! Hmm, yeah.. Can I be real with you guys for a minute? I’m all for spreading happy thoughts but I also want to be honest and share some reality too. Honestly, I’m not feeling as excited about another new week. Another week of sameness. Staying inside (mostly), not going anywhere but the supermarket or the occasional family visit – which luckily is still allowed here in the Netherlands. Doing the same things everyday. Waking up, eating some breakfast before starting work. Then having lunch, worrying about dinner. Working some more, downtime with crochet or video games, oh wait dinnertime, okay let’s cook. Having dinner, cleaning up, what’s on Netflix? Nothing new, same old show. Even though I never thought of myself as an outgoing or outdoorsy person, I can’t help but miss planning things. Shopping trips, going to workshops, birthdays..

Those of us who haven’t (yet) been affected by the virus feel extremely lucky. We shouldn’t complain, it could be so much worse. Right? We feel bad because we can’t hang out with friends, but we also feel like we shouldn’t even be thinking that, because these are luxury first world problems. But just because our problems might not be ‘big’, doesn’t mean we can’t feel bad about them. That’s why today I’m letting you know: Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay if you feel sad. It’s okay if you don’t want to participate in another Skype call. It’s okay if you want to dye your hair because your own hair is the only thing you feel in control of right now. It’s okay.

It’s okay if you lose yourself in a new activity like video games (hello Animal Crossing!) or knitting or reading or whatever helps distract you from reality. Perhaps gardening has become your new hobby, like for me and many others I’m sure. It’s okay if these past few weeks have been increasingly hard because hey, the warmer weather is coming which means we’re all getting in vacation mode but guess what, no sunny beach resort vacations planned for this year! Nope, no sir.

So what is the big deal, one might say, just take some weeks off and plan a staycation! And I’m not sure if you guys are feeling some of this too, but taking time off to just stay at home sometimes seems so.. wasteful almost. We are so driven to make the most out of everything, to live every day as if it’s your last, that even spending one day at home, not working, just sitting around like you would do on holiday, seems foolish, senseless! We do need it though, we need time off, time for ourselves.

What I want to say with this blogpost is, however you’re feeling, it’s okay. Maybe you’re feeling like things are no longer in your control, you’re feeling less on top of things, you’re feeling ‘messy’. I think all of our lives are a little messy right now to be honest! The key is to recognize it, don’t try to solve it immediately, just acknowledge it and let it be for the moment. Your well-being is important right now and those piles of laundry can wait another day or two. You don’t have to do it all, and certainly not now. We are all coping, and that looks different for all of us.

If you’re still reading this, thank you! I hesitated before posting this because I don’t talk about things other than knitting or crochet often, and it feels ‘risky’ talking about not-so-happy things. If you’re here for the crochet and knitting only, that’s fine. But if this blogpost makes even one person feel like they’re not alone in feeling sad, and feeling guilty about that sadness, then I’m glad I pressed ‘publish’ on this post to share my thoughts with you. Feel free to share your own thoughts below, it can be quite therapeutic to let things out!

Until next time

x Carmen

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