As a writer, one with eight published books, being able to get out and about, talking to people about and showing/reading from my books is a major source of income. Some artistic/creative people are reclusive, and tend toward the hermit life, rather than the party goer life.
But I’m a mix of the two, I cope well with being home alone, doing my writing thing, but I also love connections with people, online, and definitely in real life too. Whether speaking one on one, or to a crowd, I love it!
But in this current time, November 2020, getting out and about can lead to contracting Covid a case, so staying home is the safest way to be. Or if not at home, then ‘socially distanced’ is the way to go for us all. So that’s more or less what I’ve been doing. Staying at home, and writing a novel. Because that is the best way to be at this particular moment in time.
Certainly, I now some people are finding it difficult to be at home, alone, locked into loneliness, by the horrid Covid virus. I am sorry for those people, and am grateful my Stoic way of looking at life, accepting what is, and working to find ways to make it work in the best way possible.
If the best thing to do is to stay at home, then I will stay at home. Railing against this is a useless waste of time and energy, and upsetting. Being at home, with plenty of free time, is perfect, more time to write! And if there are ways to consolidate my writing life online, again, now is the perfect time for that too. It is a good thing for me to do.
Also, using my skills to give to others in supportive ways, that is for the good too, a good greater than just for me. So I am sharing my writing, with both blog posts, and forwarding snippets of the novel I’m writing to a friend, and she is enjoying reading them, so that’s definitely a good thing for her, and for me too.
And even though I’m mostly staying home, the online world makes it possible, even easy to do the community thing I need to do, for my community. My most important community role is as the Editor of a monthly newsletter, that is available both online, and in hard copy, in the town of Mallala and beyond.
I have been involved in doing this for around fifteen years, and I know, because I’ve been told, that this newsletter is a welcome piece of informative pleasure, every month. So even though, as I’ve said, I’m staying at home lot, I’m still able to work on the newsletter that connects me tightly with my Mallala community.
This newsletter also has stronger connections – several of the members of my writing group regularly provide pieces to go in this newsletter. This is good for me, in that it’s less work for me to do, it’s good for them, because it’s good for writers to have their work accepted, and published, and it’s good for the community, because of the interesting range of material available in this newsletter, from these writers.
So even in these Covid times, I am able to accept all of the good points it brings, while working to minimise the bad. Even with Covid, these can still be good times, for those who accept the necessary limitations, and deal with them in the best ways possible. The Stoic attitude life makes this so much easier. Accepting what is, instead of worrying about what isn’t …
My Stoic Life 