In a year of isolation and social distancing, I have come to appreciate what the adults in my life did to make life enjoyable and full of surprises. I’m thinking about my grandmother frying mandazi on Sunday evenings so we would have something for breakfast the following week.
Or my mother saving up to take me to the park, or my uncle planting a new tree in the middle of the farm and one day calling us to go see when it flowered, or when it had ready fruits. Like the guava tree he planted in the middle of the Napier grass fields, and the surprise we got to know that we had guava on the farm.
As an adult, an adult living alone. It is very easy to get into monotony and life can become quite saltless.
And I have had to use my brain to make it exciting for myself even after being indoors for a week, two weeks.
It doesn’t take much, but I have realized that even simple morning routines, evening routines, taking a different route when I take walks, cooking a meal with my whole senses involved, take the monotony out of life.
Having live chats with my friends and family has proved to be the best way to get to know my friends and acquaintances better.I am learning to make life intentionally interesting for myself. I know someone who buys herself flowers and I think that is cool. I don’t, I pick wild ones. But I take myself out for tea, at least twice a month.
Are there things you do, as an adult living alone or with cats do to maintain the surprise element in your life?
