Simplicity Relished

your guide to adventurous living

How we’re spending our last summer in Connecticut (socially distanced)

When we moved to New Haven two years ago for my MBA program, we never imagined this season would end in a global crisis. Lately, the pandemic has contributed to how challenging it seems to truly close this chapter.

In just a few weeks, Aaron and I will leave the East Coast and move permanently to the Bay Area, California. We both grew up there, and returning by 2020 has always been the plan. We are so excited to be near family and old friends, with access to redwood forests and coastal bluffs.

But concluding our final season in the Northeast has been sadder than I imagined, in part because we had hoped to explore the region a bit more before leaving. Although both of us spent 2009-2014 on this side of the country (4 years of college + 1 year of work), neither of us had cars or the foresight to dig into all of New England’s beautiful sightseeing opportunities.

So I’m already nostalgic— in part for the ways we did explore locally over the past couple years, and for the ways we could have.

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Simple morning and evening routines during quarantine

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, our lives seemed to be moving at breakneck speed. I, especially, had abandoned any past commitment to slow living when I realized that I could do so much more with my time if I just… crammed it all in.

I’m embarrassed and humbled to confess that I have unnecessarily worked 7 days per week for the past 2 years. Yes, business school and launching a startup and blah blah blah, but did the world require me to maintain 12-hour work days and then some? In a word, No.

Yet I did anyway, and I’m even more embarrassed to admit that I would probably be inclined to continue to work 7 days per week, if it weren’t for the ways COVID-19 is changing my perspective.

One of the primary shifts in my mind is that speed and quantity (or even quality) are not necessarily good modes of operation, especially when they’re driven by anxiety. I have not been sleeping well. I wake up in the middle of the night and — believe it or not — open Twitter on my phone to see the latest updates on the virus, the stimulus plan, the shutdowns. It’s terrible, and I am stopping this.

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Coronavirus survival: one breath at a time.

Our current global crisis has catalyzed numerous reactions, from individuals like you and me shuttered away in our homes, to large multinational organizations working to respond in time.

Amidst all the advocacy, commentary, and reporting (and much of this is important), it would be nearly impossible to resist overwhelm.

As we consider the various layers of challenges we face, each one can be incredibly daunting on its own:

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