During this medical crisis we are facing, there are still a lot of positive things we can look forward to. Here is the latest regarding Covid 19 in Santa Barbara and ideas to help keep you mentally and physically strong.
Some grocery chains are offering special hours for seniors.
Some of these are not here locally, but some are. If you need someone to shop for you, let me know! There are volunteers willing to help out.
This is the best time to show some kindness.
A friend shared a story to me, "At the Trader Joe's on Milpas this morning, the line was around the block. A senior lady was pushing her cart to the back of the line, and people at the front of the line asked her to go ahead before them. This is a time when we can be the absolute best versions of ourselves, and there are some beautiful examples out there of this happening."
What else can we do right Now?
Stay indoors and keep yourself safe.
Cabin Fever from shelter-in-place? This is a great time to avail yourself of virtual tours, exercise classes you can take online, and cultural resources:
1. The Metropolitan Opera is live-streaming some of their past shows as encore presentations.
2. The YMCA is offering 60 free workout classes online.
3. 12 famous museums around the world are offering free virtual tours. See the Mona Lisa with no lines! Visit the Musee D'Orsay, the Guggenheim, and more! Catch up on your Monets, Degas, and Van Goghs. My daughter is an art buff, and on recent trips to Europe, she had us hunting Louis XIV paintings in museums across France, and Picasso's works across Spain. Mental note to dispatch her on a similar mission now, using virtual resources.
Thanks to great neighbor Lisa Cullen for the next 3 suggestions:
1. Plant a garden, grow some food! It's the right season for it.
2. Audible is offering many free audio book titles specifically for younger audience though they include classic titles like Call of the Wild, White Fang and Jane Eyre!
3. Also, for those who love to work out and miss going to the gym, Daily Burn is offering a 60 day Free Pass to their massive catalog of exercise classes…They have everything from Yoga to Pilates, Barre and weight training and mobility.
Neighbor Bob Ornstein encouraged me to share with you a 'remote' Beethoven's 9th Symphony concert, where the orchestra plays it from their homes! You may have seen videos of musicians in Italy and Spain playing music from their balconies to neighbors also shut in, who went out onto their balconies to listen to these free and improvised concerts. In Puerto Rico, they sang back to the Italians, moved by this sharing of music during this stressful time.
We may be indoors for now, but we've got options to enrich ourselves, stay fit, and educate ourselves.
