It has been a long time since I posted something I have personally written, mainly due to the time constrictions thrust upon me by COVID-19. I have two small children and for the past four months, I have become their teacher, entertainer, and personal chef.  I did not have the luxury of time to think, write, or day-dream. I was living a reality, like many others, of having young children in the home 24 hours a day.

However, as the months went by, I knew I couldn’t keep this up forever. I would need to get back to writing at some point.  Yet, after some time, a fear arose, a mental barrier: what would I actually write? Where would I start? How would I explain the past four months? I wondered when I had the time to write, what would I actually say?

I have decided to write about the self-care activity I did during lockdown. The activity? Reading! I read 27 books between March and July. This is not to boast, but to show how desperate times were! I needed something to get me through lockdown and out the other side with my sanity still intact. For me, if I couldn’t write, I decided that reading would be the next best thing. Books whisk me away to an imaginary world, one, where I can become submerged in the lives of other people and invested in their stories. I needed these intermittent hours of mindful escape, when I was stuck indoors being a general cleaner, cook and full time teacher.

In the past few weeks, my mojo has returned, and I am ready to get back to writing. However, I am also realistic, I haven’t got the time, right now, to continue writing my next romance novel: Do you Ever Think of Me? A full length novel is 80,000 words and even if I am already half-way through, I still need extended periods of time, alone, to do the story absolutely justice. A luxury I do not have right now, so I have decided to write something with less word count – a children’s book!

It is about the small victories, the small compromises; I can’t do this, but I can do that instead!

 I do not usually read in such high volumes. I would probably manage 27 books in a whole year, but this was my indulgence, a simple pleasure I rediscovered. What is your treat, just for you?  Please share, I would love to hear about your self-care activities during the past few months.