Life in the time of COVID-19

Strange days we’re living in and how quickly our lives have changed. My time in D.C. ended in the middle of March and I have found myself in quarantine back with my community in Portland, Oregon the day after St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve taken to learning more songs and tunes, sleeping more, eating more, loving on animals more, savoring long walks and bike rides around town more, and allowing myself to daydream more. In short I’ve taken to quarantine like the introvert I am and am flourishing in ways that were not possible back in ‘the normal.’ Don’t get me wrong—I get anxious sometimes, I read too much news, I judge people’s behaviors too much, and I judge myself and my expanding waistline too much but I feel that (for me) this quarantine has allowed a much needed process of coming-into-my-own-self to emerge. But then I also just wanted to go out and have a pint and salty chips and listen to some music at T.C. O’Leary’s or the Moon and Sixpence. The various facets of my community have really taken to online performances and singing sessions and I myself have begun offering a lot of online language classes and private lessons. I hate being in front of the computer any more than I have to but, here we are, depending on the blue screen to keep us paid and (somewhat) sane. Hightlights—because we should always be positive—have been An Góilín and Inishowen song circles online as well as a few well-deserved Zoom sessions with friends far away and near. I am lucky. I have been relatively unscathed. But I also acknowledge that many have not and whole communities have been devastated and once again old wounds are opened again. Our indigenous communities, our communities of color, the working class have all paid the price and some are still paying the price. This pandemic has brought out the worst in those from whom we expect it and the best from those we would not necessarily have. As the proverb states: Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine—in the shadows of each other we live. I hope we can literally live in each other’s company again soon!