7 things you might realize during the Quarantine period

June 9, 2020, almost 3 months since the company that I worked with advised us to stop reporting in the office and stay at home for safety reasons while pandemic situations arise.

For the first 2 weeks of staying at home, I felt happy, free from the 8-hour office works, road traffic jams, Manic Mondays, and other things that I need to do during weekdays before. But, after a month of staying at home, worries and fears came along, at those times I no longer work from home and no usual salary/income. But, amidst those worries and fears, I didn’t stop doing the best that I can do to cope with the pandemic crisis. Even though our activities are very limited because of the imposed government guidelines, I did manage to practice again some of my old hobbies like gardening and cooking. And as I woke up every day, I realized many good things in life that this pandemic crisis brings. These are my 7 core realizations during the pandemic crisis that you also might realize:

1.     Home-cooked meals or “lutong bahay” are the best!

Before the pandemic crisis happened, only Sundays we can be able to cook “lutong bahay” for our family meals, other days of the week instant and fast foods are the popular meals that I ate due to the limited time to prepare meals. But, staying at home gives me a lot of time to cook for meals, aside from it is surely delicious, it is cost-saving and healthy. I and my family can decide what to eat for a meal not relying on a menu board on a fast-food chain, or on the stock of instant foods. We do have a schedule on who will cook our meals every day, my father will cook for our breakfast, my mother will cook for lunch (usually breakfast dish is budgeted up to lunch), and me assigned to cook for our dinner. We enjoyed preparing our meals every day and we able to explore more dishes that we haven’t tried before like Bicol Express, “Binagoongang baboy” and many more.

Bicol Express & Misua with Sardines

2.     I miss the sunsets.

I am an “Opacarophile” or sunsets lover, it never fails me to be amazed while watching the stunning scene before a day will end. Working in an 8-hour shift every day (9 am-6 pm) before, I always missed the sunset scenes and the joy of watching it. But, during the quarantine period, I able to watch again those mixed color of red, blue, yellow, and purple in the sky, I could spend 20-30 minutes watching those scenes and it always made me feel contented and happy, it is a therapy to me that relieves my fears and worries, a daily prescription of a great Doctor from above.

Sunsets

3.     Planting is in my genes

Aside from cooking, gardening is also the hobby that I practiced again during the quarantine period. At first, it was just a tease to my workmate to plant an “alugbati” – Malabar Spinach to sustain food for quarantine period, and then there is something urges me to do our called “alugbati challenge”. Since I don’t have a wide field or garden for the alugbati to be planted, I came up with the idea of hanging it using a PET bottle and strings (vertical gardening). I started planting and I enjoyed the experience of doing it, from the goal of vertical gardening, it became an “Atop gardening” (garden at the roof), I planted other variety of vegetables in unused containers and placed them at the roof of our dirty kitchen. It then made me realized that the urge of doing the “alugbati challenge” is not to make fun of the said tease, it is in my bloodline. My late grandfather which I adored was a farmer and my father is also a good farmer. It is built-in my genes and I want to pass it on to our next generations.

Planting is not just a hobby to lessen the boredom of the quarantine period, but is also a skill that you can use for your daily living. Start planting!

"Atop" gardening

4.     Happy meals

This is in connection to #1, eating with the family members is one of the many Filipino cultures that slowly diminishes its value because of the "busy" schedule of each family member. But, since we have plenty of time to spend with our family during quarantine period, being in one table for a meal is finally common again in our family, and this is one of the best effects of the quarantine period. I and my family enjoyed taking our prepared “lutong bahay” meals while catching up with each other, it is satisfying to our tummies and our mind. The dining table became our favorite rendezvous, but we became a bit worried if our work and school uniforms could still be fit with our vital statistics Hehehehe. Anyway, I am reminded of a quote from La Motte – “A family who eats together, stays together.” Enjoy your happy meal.

5.     Income outside the corporate world

When the “no work, no pay” policy started in my current company that I am working with, tons of worries rise. Questions like, “What can I do next?” “What will my family be eating next days?” “How we can sustain for a living” repeatedly running on my mind and for me it is normal to think such questions in the time of uncertainties. But, I did not end up worrying, I go beyond the borders of my unusual activities, I started doing business by reselling foods and stuffs online. I did resell fresh harvest sweet corns, delicious lechon baboy, fresh scallops, fresh eggs, etc. Me and my family also decided to sell ice, ice water, and prepaid cellphone load. And the result of our hard work, little by little we earned profit enough for our daily living. Though it was not my comfort to do such a thing, it made me realize that comfort is not a priority when you need to continue life on these trying times. More important is we are healthy and safe in our home.

If you want affordable fresh eggs, packed tempura, and fish balls, please message me at https://www.facebook.com/arieljaycapuyan

6.     Blessing in disguise: Rest days

After I graduated from college, I only spent a month to land a job in a corporate world, and since then, the longest rest day every year that I spent is probably 4-5 days (during Holy week holidays). Working in a corporate world will cage you for an 8-hour shift 6 times a week plus the travel time spent in traveling, that’s why Sundays and holidays are precious for me, to isolate myself from my office activities and reports. Yes, my work is my bread and butter, that’s why despite the difficulties, I still decided to have it and continue. Then the pandemic crisis came, it forced us (private employees) to temporarily stopped our work (also the salary), other employees are blessed enough that their  work did not stop and able to continue it at home. But then I realized that my dream to have longer rest days is now happening, a blessing in disguise called “quarantine period”. Even though the quarantine period was not easy, but I able to see a light side of it, I continued my pending works, did my hobbies again, and I spend more time with my family. Yes! I am now thankful that I spend vacation without applying to HRD a travel leave, and I’m thankful that sick leave is not the reason. So, spend the rest of your quarantine period wisely as if it is a need, not a luxury.

7.     God is with us.

As the pandemic rises, fears and worries also rise. From time to time my fears and worries keep on stirring my faith in God’s power during this pandemic crisis. But I firmly believe that this pandemic happens for a reason, that God wants to remind us that HE is always present even in this trying times and HIS power is greater than our fears and worries. I realized that HE is always with us through the instruments that HE gave to us every day: our family that love us, Health workers and medical practitioners who serve as front liners on fighting the virus, the government who provides us relief supplies while our income is stopped, the patients who diagnosed of the virus but still they keep on fighting and successfully overcome the virus, and the blessings coming from our friends and compassionate groups and individuals. They serve as the small voice from our big God amidst the noise of the pandemic crisis. Please be closer to God every day to feel HIS warm presence and to hear HIS healing message saying: MY CHILD, I AM WITH YOU, ALWAYS.