My world is small

It wasn’t always this way. In fact, my world has generally been quite the opposite of small. Summer holidays during my childhood involved lots of road trips. We’ve had family trips that have taken me coast to coast in Canada. I’ve built a hiking trail in Finland, done archaeological field work in Jordan, Israel, England and Georgia (the Republic of, not the state). I have immigrated from Canada to the UK three separate times (and live here now). I have also spent five years living in California. Those are just some highlights. My world has always been filled with exploration and travel – going places, seeing things, meeting people and experiencing new things.

Now I am living my life in a bubble of less than 2 miles. This is not an experience unique to me in the age of Covid19, but what has struck me is how long it took me to realise how much my world had shrunk. Two weeks before the UK initiated its ‘lockdown’ (debatable whether this is the appropriate term), we flew out to Canada to visit my family. Upon arrival home, we settled straight into homeworking, and essentially self-isolating as much as possible. I was pregnant at the time, so fell into the sheltering category. I didn’t go into shops at all, and The Bearded One limited outies to once weekly food shops. We did walk most days and took the chance to explore neighbourhoods around us that we had never seen. My slow waddling pace, and shrinking bladder capacity kept these walks within a 1-2 miles outbound trip.

Since our tiny human has come along I’ve mostly stuck close to home for walks and visits outside with friends. From our door we can walk a 3 mile loop that takes us exclusively through playing fields, gardens and around a lake. Makes it easy to meet and socialise, and gives us access to good paths and greenery.

Earlier this week I was invited to join my workmates at their first face to face meet up since March. They were meeting in a more-different park which was near where our office is located. It felt very far to walk, especially on my own with a baby and no Bearded One. I tentatively said yes, and then googled the distance. It was just over 1 mile. That’s all. It wasn’t miles away, it wasn’t even 2 miles away. It was a 25 minute walk. And it felt far.

My world is small, and it took me 5 months to realise it.


Entry 1 of #100DaysToOffload

22 August 2020