It is difficult to believe a year has cycled around since the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I had returned from my vacation in Florida on March 13th, 2020 and it was in the airports that I realized something momentous was taking place. The terminals were eerily deserted, my flights re-scheduled and gates changed several times while I was at the airport. The planes were pretty empty also which was disconcerting, even as I enjoyed having extra room in my row. I arrived home safely which is more than can be said for people caught in the worldwide desperation to ‘get back home’ wherever in the world that happened to be. Everything was changing. The world was becoming a new place, reinventing itself daily.
As the days and weeks and months stretched on with more closures, more restrictions, more rules to now live by I became more content to stay home finding a daily rhythm that suited the new lifestyle I found myself in: awaken early(the cats took care of this step), yoga, tai chi(cats ‘helped’ with these practices too), coffee while checking emails and text messages(cats sat on the keyboard to ‘help’ with my typing), paint and/or collage in my art journal or on a tile or canvas, spent time outside in any kind of weather and especially sitting by the lake either in flip-flops or bundled in a winter coat. I also stopped listening to, watching and reading ‘news’ which was depressing at best and alarming at worst. I began to pay more attention to the phases of the moon, the planetary line-ups heralding in the long awaited Age of Aquarius, the cycling of the constellations, the angle of the sun as the seasons changed. I wrote haikus, kept little journals to record these celestial events and sketched and painted images to go with my writings. Below are my sky-watching journal page and collages of January Full Moon in Leo and February Full Moon in Virgo.
When 2020 turned into 2021 I decided to challenge myself to learn new technologies and methods of expressing myself through art. It’s not like I need more challenges than are presented in the world each day. These are personal to my life and will not sound like challenges to most other people. I started an Instagram account in January – pattycarley50 – in order to share my artwork and writings. It has been a fun project and I have already connected with people I haven’t heard from in quite some time.
Then one morning in February I woke up with the idea to have an account for my son John’s artwork. I believe he suggested this to me in a dream. You can find his artwork at heart2heart_artworks.
So…2 technological missions accomplished! My next challenge is to submit my writings to publications and contests. No grand prizes yet but I plane to continue submitting my work. The practice of reading poems and stories keeps me focused and dedicated to writing each day. Following is a ‘non-winner’ containing the word icicles.
icicles on eaves
tears that freeze while spilling down
plash into my heart
Over the past year I have participated in many online art classes, spiritual enhancement courses, goddess/priestess rituals, seasonal practices. Each has shown me something I need to learn, a new way of looking at life and people, a new way of expressing myself.
I have loved them all!
Poetry, Prose, and Painting 
