When I came back from my last trip to Budapest, a city that I always dreamed of exploring, some of my friends asked where to next? What city are you going to explore ? and what adventure you would like to experience? And my answer was
Moscow for sure
Paris
London again
And maybe New York one day..
The year started with some exciting events, nice incidents and many aspirations yet time flew and the world was in shock with the outbreak of the Conorna virus or AKA COVID -19 that stopped movement around the world.
Air travel movement stopped, leaving the house was only for urgent matters, our children and siblings resumed their education from home and we too worked from home. Thanks to technology everything was possible, meetings, work and productivity continued.
We thought that it will take few weeks and this nightmare will be over but not yet, even though life is going back to ‘new’ normal slowly but with disinfections rituals while wearing masks and taking many other measures.
The lockdown and the COVID panic caused stress and uncanny emotions to many, while for others the change in life pattern was accompanied by other changes, might be a career or job-related challenges, loss of job or income for some, or had a severe impact on growing business. From a personal experience, I can say that such sudden changes can have a much stronger impact than the virus itself and lockdown.
One of the speakers in a course I attended last week said “ we don’t like change, we like change that we are in charge of not sudden change that’s out of our hands” and I totally agree with that, some changes can cause us disappointment and pain that we cannot get over easily.
Working from home was weird at the beginning but I adapted quickly to my space, working from my cozy home office, a quiet and lovely corner, with candles and my cup of coffee of course.
After going through this journey I can say that the world needed to pause for a while, we were running too fast, planning things for the future to the level that we forgot about the little details that add value to our day
We didn’t realize the beauty and importance of coffee chats with friends, the warmth of grandmothers hugs and kisses, and family conversations and laughter’s during weekends
Things as simple as the sound of prayer early in the morning
Getting a cup of coffee from the coffee shop near our building
Morning greetings to colleagues
The quick stops by the ice cream store on my home after a long day
Buying some flowers
Saturday mornings at my favorite spot with my book and journal
And planning vacations and summer trips
Ramadan passed by weirdly and Eid lacked the usual rituals
Yet we are back to work, we smile despite everything, and we look forward to better days, fewer surprises and disappointments.
Yes its such difficult times but with many emotions, events, and achievements too. I never thought that one day I will present in a workshop from my bedroom, or to attend a week-long course with colleagues from around the world from my home in Dubai. I had very inspiring talks with some people, baked many delicious recipes, read amazing books and watched movies and series and for sure spent more time with my family.
Corona might not be that bad by the end of the day, it made us appreciate the little things around us more
Personally, this experience thought me to love my space more, and no matter what challenges or disappointment I been through before there are tougher challenges yet to come thats incomparable to the previous ones.
I hope you are safe wherever you are, hoping that we can travel again
Breath once again
And smile with a peaceful soul
Reem
I read; I travel; I become 