Boredom
Lethargic. Melancholy. Lonely. Nothing to do.
Blue. Grey. Clouds. Monotony.
Words that conjure up the feeling of boredom.
As life in the time of Coronavirus continues, with all of its’ disappointments, fears and challenges, I have been debating bringing back my Quarantine Photo Challenge. I thought it might be helpful to work through some of the ongoing emotions we all are feeling…fear, disappointment, boredom (or busyness!) and more. I feel like, as time has gone by, new emotions have arisen…ones that I maybe didn’t feel, or didn’t have to deal with at the beginning, but as time has gone on, as circumstances have changed, so have the emotions that I feel. As circumstances change (or don’t change!), we are faced with new challenges.
I am going to choose a word a week, and photograph what that word means to me right now. If you want to join in, you are more than welcome to, but if not, you can just follow along with my photographs and musings. If you do choose to join in, use the hashtag: #deepsoulphotoreflections. (As an aside, I never liked the term "photo challenge" for what we are/were doing here…but I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it. As we went through the “challenge”, I was struck more and more by how therapeutic the whole process felt to me…taking a word or idea, mulling it over, trying to put that abstract idea into a concrete photo…it was more than a challenge. It was a time of reflection, of contemplation. Hence why I am using the term Coronavirus “Reflections” this time around, rather than “Challenge”.)
My first word is boredom. This is a feeling that I myself haven’t really been experiencing, (I have quite a lot going on, actually!) but it IS an issue that I am observing in my daughters, especially my oldest daughter who graduated this year.
My daughter’s life is not looking anything like she thought it would right now. She was supposed to be in Canada, spending her summer working, saving up for school. She had hoped to do a school in Europe this fall. She was going to move on, be busy having new adventures, making new friends, doing new things.
Now, none of that is happening. Plans are up in the air, filled with uncertainty and unknowns.
She is not in Canada, she is stuck here in Central Asia. She can’t work here because she doesn’t have a work visa, which leads to long days stuck at home. Many friends have left on charter flights to return to their home countries, leaving only a few friends here for her to hang out with. Lots of places are closed, so things that you would normally be able to do, you can’t do. Many shops are closed, or have unpredictable schedules due to people being sick. You often don’t know if a place will be open or not when you go. On top of that, motivation is low and lethargy common.
This all combines to create a general feeling of boredom.
So what is there to do? No friends, no work, no activities, no motivation…
It is a recipe for boredom.
I created the picture below to speak to this feeling of “boredom”. What does this image say to you? To me it shows the passage of time, and yet, a lack of movement, and the ensuing emotion of boredom reflected on her face.
How are you handling boredom in your or your kids’ lives? Do you have any strategies or solutions?
