Dot Dot Dot

A lot has changed in the world since my last post. For my own sanity, I tuned out of social media, stopped following the news and even switched off the radio and created new lists on my Spotify.

The corona virus is real, close and scary. Our government has halted all public life with strict measures. Schools, restaurants and other gathering places are closed until the 3rd of april (for now). Shops are to remain closed on weekends (not grocery stores and pharmacies). The people need to isolate themselves and not meet with anyone except housemates. Not even in small groups. A lot of people who can work from home are ordered to do so by their workplaces. Grocery stores have been ransacked last week. People went insane over packs of pasta, tomato sauce and loo rolls. Videos appeared of people with gas masks running around Jumbo stores and fighting on parking lot of Aldi over who could have the last pack of flower. At the same time, people went to ‘lockdown parties’ in cafes and ate pancakes across the borders of France and The Netherlands because they’re still ‘open’. The world has gone mad over an invisible enemy.

And with every. single. news. article, the constant stream of interviews with anyone they can find on the radio and every. single. story. on IG being about the virus, I just had to tune out. Don’t get me wrong here, it’s important that we get updates, guidelines, etc… but there’s so much white noise in the world of communication right now. I really don’t need everyone on IG to upload the empty shelves of their local supermarket. Nor the newspaper to tell me each five minutes which celebrity tested positive. And definitely not one hundred interviews on the radio with people who’s vacations have been cancelled. It adds nothing but fear for me.

Sydney from The Daybook put into words what I felt I needed and I wanted to share that today, in case you’re feeling a little lost too right now. I couldn’t have said it any better:

“So while everyone’s talking about washing their hands like it’s news, I also believe that one of the best things that we can do to strengthen ourselves is to daily, intentionally, replant ourselves where we stand. Do not watch/read the news if it’s triggering. Unfollow as needed. And look around you. Notice your backyard or the room you’re sitting in. Tune into the normalcy of deciding what you want for lunch. Take a walk down the street and reconnect to what is real life for YOU.” – @sydneyliann on Instagram, 12/03/2020

I haven’t talked about it on the blog yet, but I burned out in December. The panic surrounding the virus has caught onto me and resulted in a really bad fall back. Tuning into normalcy has been my remedy and it seems to work. Letting go of expectations, wants and needs has been another. Maybe I cannot go to my beloved coffee shops right now because they’re closed, but I can have a good decaf coffee at home. I can’t go to the market to buy waffles this week, but I will be making chocolate chip banana bread. I still need to tend to our flower garden and cut of all the dead wood so the new offshoots can grow to be big and beautiful like last year. Walks in the neighborhood aren’t forbidden and neither is shooting outfits for the blog.

My boyfriend is one of the many who will be working from for the next couple of weeks. He likes to walk around town to stretch his legs before and after and we use the opportunity to shoot my favorite looks for the blog at once. I can also shamelessly stop and stare at the magnolia trees that are starting to bloom around here. With Spring slowly taking over from winter, I have realized that the world might be burning, it is still turning.

Stay grounded. Stay healthy. Stay home. Stay safe.

Outfit details
Dress: Whistles (old)
Shoes: Bristol
bag: Mieke Dierckx