These days I’m trying so hard to set an example for my children. I want them to see how we can be complete, get back to basics with simple pleasures of life in isolation. We are so used to this fast paste life, it’s hard to slow down and just be present.

Once I mentioned that the reason we chose 100% cotton for the inside of our reusable bags was that we felt we need to go back to the basics. 10 years ago when I was researching food safe fabrics to use for the inside of our sandwich bags there was no exact science behind it. I couldn’t get a single person in Health Canada to reply with confidence that the ripstop water-resistance fabric I was planning to us was actually food safe. Until one day one of the chemists there asked me if my kids were fine using that bag, that the chemical inside the bag was the same as something very scary that I don’t remember now. I remember this because I was in my car talking to this person, it was mid-October and I remember I felt a terrifying shiver going down my spine. Am I making my kids sick by helping heal the planet? Being me I always ask what my mom and her mom and her mom did. What my great grandmother did when there was no plastic? Simple they used to wrap their bread in a cotton cloth. Back to basics, that’s what I did then and that’s what I do now.

Getting back to basics in isolation

It’s Easter long weekend. And because of COVID 19, all you can hear in the news and everywhere are begging people to stay home, stay close, don’t travel to remote and small communities now is not the time to travel. These are the days that we need to go back to basics and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Back in my great grandparents’ time, they had to travel by mule so they would stick to their own village. Most were farmers so they would stick to their own farm and maybe not see their extended families for months. They would go out of their farm if there was a good reason for it not just to fool around and have fun.

But they had fun they would enjoy each other’s company and simple pleasure of life. Sitting in the sunshine, walking, singing, creating a good meal, crafting something beautiful for their home. We need to get back to the basics and enjoy simple pleasures of life until it’s safe to go out again and be with others and meet in places.

We are still a community, we just need to be a virtual one until things get under control. Here are a few simple pleasure of life I enjoy

• Reading a good book
• Gardening
• Organizing and making my house look better
• Making Birthday Cards for when I need them
• Coloring
• Cooking – Baking
• Singing
• Dancing
• Family movie nights
• Family game nights
• Long walks around the neighbourhood, 6 feet apart from everyone else.

What are your simple pleasures of life these days?