five years today

Over lunch, I picked up my phone and opened Facebook, looking for a specific photo, to get a date, to have a starting point to dive into my archives. From there, I mindlessly tapped the “Memories” button in the menu, and there it was, right up the top. The last project of The Before.

We’d spent a few nights at the coast for a homeschool excursion; one eye on the children, one eye on the news as this new fangled “coronavirus” went from “it’s a thing in China the media is blowing out of proportion” to “holy moly this is bonkers and is A Big Deal”. I texted the husband back and forth as we both collected essentials, just in case. Not toilet paper though, I will add as a disclaimer, but non-perishables and some toiletries and maybe some icecream and wine.

On that last day, I played with reed weaving while the kiddos had their final workshop of our excursion, then loaded the car, and headed west, stopping only for some last minute panic buying in Bellingen; craft supplies, of course, because I was not going to risk being stuck at home with no new goodies to entertain me. We got home, and texted mum and dad to say we were safe, and would be taking a wee iso break, just for two weeks, just to be safe; the coast was so busy, we didn’t know what we might have picked up.

our last trip to the library (I did warn the kids to stock up) // finished Car’s pouch just as we left, and posted it from the coast // of course pandemic panic buying includes a trip to spotlight // the last group photo of the homeschool group when the world was still old-normal // the last blog post being written // heck yeah I hit up Uncle Dan’s (Dan Murphys, the bottle shop chain, for the non-Aussies) and stocked up on six weeks worth of iso wine // day ten and I was getting the hang of tiny house iso life // the start of the iso craft marathon

I had an inkling though, that day, that it wasn’t going to be as simple as two short weeks at home; the news coming out of Italy and India suggested this was going to be a wild ride. I didn’t expect a five year rollercoaster that has totally warped my perception of time, that realigned my entire creative process, that would blow apart plans neatly settled just six weeks previously, as we moved into our cabin “just for twelve months” (spoiler, it would be almost FOUR YEARS before we would finally move into our new house).

Last week, as I held space for friends in the path of the cyclone, chatting about their last minute grocery shop and their cyclone projects, as we watched Brisbane and the Gold Coast shut their services and schools in quick succession, I went to BigW, and walking in, I had the thought out of the blue – “ew people, where’s my mask?”. It took a minute to realise why; my lizard brain put prepping + March together and got the answer “pandemic”. It also doesn’t escape my notice that today, the fifth anniversary of the last day of The Before (that was already getting weird), I have once again just come back from the coast, and once again stopped at that lovely little craft shop at the foot of the ranges.

History, they say, doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme, and it’s an echo I’m hearing loud and clear today. Happy covidiversary, I guess? EndOfTheBeforeiversary? NewNormalversary? Five years. What a crazy, unprecedented time.