Day 1, Quarantine Edition

I’ve heard a lot of other people’s experiences about day one of quarantine it and got me to thinking about my (Hannah) own. You probably didn’t know this but Megan and I are actually in different cities because as soon as I heard NZ was moving to level 4 in our precautions to fight the Covid-19 pandemic I booked flights down to Christchurch to be with my sister and her family. I was crossing my fingers and toes that my plane would still be allowed to fly out. In faith I headed to the airport the day lock down was about to be initialised. I went extra early to the airport to watch how things played out with the other scheduled flights. One by one, with an anxious belly, I watched flights get canceled. While waiting in a terminal shared by three different gates I watched families get up and leave to figure out last minute accommodation in Auckland before midnight brought national quarantine. Everyone else that remained sat 6 feet away from each other, silently, suspiciously watching each other. The usual background music in the airport had been turned off and every few minutes a speaker blared a message of how to travel safely in this time. 

My flight got bumped up 45 minutes earlier and we started boarding. We all lined up and walked aboard with a six foot distance between us all, took our seats, taxied out and just before take off a lady started screaming about how she needed to get off the plane because she in fact wanted to stay in Auckland for quarantine. The crew decided to let her out and after finding her bags we left an hour later. 

Once I landed I told my sister I wasn’t allowed to touch her or anything until I’d gotten home, put my clothes in the laundry and had a shower. After that, we set into our new lifestyle together. Since then, something we’ve all been watching unfold, online and in house, is our renewed hope in others and ourselves during this moment on offer to reconnect with both. Let’s be honest, it’s been easy for awhile now to disconnect from so many of the important things that ground us as people. Slow mornings, nature, friends, family, time to cook instead of Uber Eats, space to explore our talents and engage with our creativity outside of work hours, people smiling back at us on our walks because they’re excited to see another human instead of avoiding eye contact. A lot of people are rethinking their lifestyles and assessing if theirs has been worth it lately. A friend commented recently, “what you find purpose in has ramifications for what you do and don’t do with that energy.” It’s simple but kind of rocking my world. I hope you’re taking this time to reassess what’s important to you too. Who knows who we can be on the other side of this quarantine. I anticipate such good things.  :) 

Much love,

Hannah