With all the negativity vying for our attention lately, I hope you’ll take a break with me, and choose something a little different in this time of quarantine. I hope you’ll choose joy. Not because of recent events, but despite them.

Now, if you’ve lost someone or something, first, I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. This is not meant to tell you how to feel or process. Please feel your feelings and grieve those losses. This time of quarantine can feel extremely isolating, but know that you’re not alone. Please, please do what’s best for you. 

There’s no right or wrong way to be during this time (or any time). However, many of us, may we be so fortunate, find ourselves with a little extra time. Quarantine can cause our energies to feel erratic. By choosing our perspective, we can harness and focus them.

Choosing Joy in Quarantine: New Skills

Although the circumstances that got us here are undoubtedly unfortunate, it can still be a positive opportunity for growth, like pouring energy into learning a new skill. A new skill that improves your life. 

As I reflect on recent events, I can’t help but acknowledge how growing, harvesting, and producing our own food not only brings me joy and reduces my anxiety, but also empowers me by knowing we have skills that put food on our table. That’s liberating! I hope what you find in this little dirt-filled space of the internet empowers you, too.

While I mostly have a laid-back attitude about the things I cannot control, I obsess over the things I do. And although we’re certainly not fully self-reliant on our little farm, I find comfort, strength, and connection in the skills we have learned, which is why I want to share those things here with you.

If you find yourself with extra time right now, my unsolicited advice as a stranger on the internet (but hopefully we’re pals, right?) would be to take a break from the news, and yes, the netflix. Just a little teeny, tiny break.

Invest your energy into learning a new skill that brings you joy. Or a new skill that makes you feel empowered. Or both! Not out of fear, but out of an opportunity for growth.

A new skill that, when we come out of this on the other side, contributes to the wellbeing of ourselves and each other. Instead of relying on resources, let’s become a more-resourceful community. We are all capable of so many badass things!

Choosing Joy: Knowledge Is Power

Although many of us are socially distancing ourselves physically, we are fortunate to live in a time where we have access to technologies that make it possible for us to connect in other ways. This technology also affords us the immense power of knowledge. 

Whatever new skill you’re thinking about, you can likely learn how to do it, on the internet, FOR FREE. 

Maybe you want to start a new exercise routine, or learn how to meditate, or how to play an instrument.  Maybe you want to get a degree, or launch your business, or start a website. Or maybe you want to learn how to be a little more self-reliant and grow your own food, and that’s how you find yourself here. 

Whatever it is, get it friend. You have all the knowledge you could ever hope for on this wild thing they call Internet.

And I hope we can be one of those resources. Not only for information, but also for joy and community. It’s one of my loftier aspirations to not only share *what* we grow, but also *how* we grow (our plants, business, and life). So many people have empowered us by sharing their knowledge, and now we want to do the same.

Will you come along for the ride?