July 2021-Coming Out of the Pandemic-Your Inner Authority

 This is not really a quilting or sewing editorial. It's about my opinion, your time, and guarding your best creative self. So, feel free to jump off, it will be just fine. 

The July editorial is not typical this year. Our lives have changed in the last year. Sometimes, even the quilter, has to deal with the "onions" in life. I truly did underestimate how the negative aspects of coming out of the pandemic has affected many. Of course, we read and hear on the television about the sharp increase in mental illness as a result of seclusion, anxiety, and illness the pandemic created but now that most of the restrictions have been lifted (in the US) many are overwhelmed by return to "normal" every day life. 

I readily admit that while the restrictions did affect me a bit I did OK. I had time to sew, to read, to study things that were always back-burner activities. That said, a wise op-ed by an amazing Sewist, added some basic principals for those who need to recalibrate their post-pandemic lives. Here are a few questions I gleaned from a recent study of the topic.   

• Your post-pandemic boundaries may be different. Months of a secluded life may have opened our eyes to pressures and problems that were just part of life before all this. Were you overwhelmed with obligations pre?  For example, clubs, social groups, demands on your time, energy, resources that did not enhance your life but detracted from it? 
• Have you recognized that you must accept the responsibility of setting limits for yourself and learning to say No is an essential element of that? 
• Are you ready to accept that some people/groups will be offended by your "new" approach to your personal limits?
• Your Inner Authority (the term used to define your closely guarded personal boundaries) has the expressed responsibility to determine non-negotiable behaviors that will ease your transition into post life. A few of mine include, no phone or electronic devices in the bedroom. Another is that I need one hour in the morning to awaken to the day, drink my coffee, enjoy the beauty outside my door and meditate. Of course, I can set that hour aside if I have to and reschedule it later in the day but it is non-negotiable. One that I have practiced for a long time that will continue in an enhanced version is that I do not "work" on Sundays. I have spent 44 years working every-other Sunday in hospitals. I paid my dues, I'm done. 
• Sunday is my day to recharge. I rest, I read, I attend worship, I spend time with my family. I try to prepare dinner on Saturday. I choose not to spend the entire day cooking. If I haven't been able to do that, a phone call and a quick trip for a take-out dinner is all that is required. I intentionally budget for those moments.      

I don't want to labor over these issues, it would defeat the purpose. It must feel natural, it needs to flow.  Your list will be different, it needs to be personalized. It is my intent to block out time for sewing, a non-negotiable creative outlet to help me live a life that always seems to be pushed aside for other responsibilities and activities. Not sure yet how that is going to work, but I'm on it. 

My other new boundary is complicated. I follow several blogs who truly enhance my life but darn it, there are so many intrusive ads that the content is almost lost. I have mentioned this before and deleted some of my subscriptions, but now there are more. More and more very good bloggers have obviously been wooed by a collective that mines their content and proposed ads that will enhance their incomes. I understand, I appreciate it, but no, I'm done. My online reading is getting smaller and smaller. I can handle it. My time is better spent.

May July 2021 be one that helps you be your best self, that is all we can ask!